French gambling giant FDJ Group's first quarter report for 2026, released this Tuesday, shows some breathlessness under the pressure of taxation. The group's overall gambling gross income increased by a slight 1% to 2.175 billion euros, but revenue fell by 3% to 895 million euros year-on-year, with just the gambling tax consuming an increase of 24 million euros. Looking at the core online betting and gambling segment, excluding the major tax markets of the UK and the Netherlands, this segment actually grew by 6% in gross gambling income, but with these two markets included, the gross income fell by 1% and revenue dropped by 8%. Chairman and CEO Stefan Palais admitted in the financial report that under the environment of increased tax burden and tightened regulation, the group is intensifying efforts in operational efficiency, synergistic effects, and financial discipline, aiming to return to a sustainable value growth trajectory from the second half of the year. Along with this report, there was also a downward revision of the full-year performance guidance—gambling gross income is expected to increase slightly, but revenue will decline slightly, with a nearly 90 million euros increase in tax burden over the years, and the expected profit margin before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is reduced from the previous 24.5% to between 23% and 24%. As industry insiders say, FDJ's current situation is clear: the domestic lottery business in France is stable, but the tax headwinds in the UK and the Netherlands are not abating, making it difficult for the group's profit statement to truly turn around.
Under the heavy tax pressure in the UK and the Netherlands, the Kindred platform changes leadership for survival
The online betting and gambling segment of FDJ, originally composed of Kindred's business, is directly impacted by the dual tax pressures from the UK and the Netherlands. Revenue in the UK plummeted by 24.1% year-on-year, and the Dutch market also shrank by 19.9%, although the decline in the Netherlands has already significantly narrowed compared to the 42.1% drop for the full year of 2025. To stop the bleeding in these two key markets, the group completed an upgrade of the online betting platform in February this year and made major changes to the management team—former CFO Pascal Chaffard was appointed as the head of the online gambling segment, replacing the former Kindred CEO Niels Anden who left to "pursue new projects." This Tuesday, FDJ also announced that Dan Levy from Ipsos France will take over as CFO. The company stated that the new management team will fully repair the performance of the online betting and gambling segment, especially in the UK and the Netherlands, the two most severely bleeding battlefields. From a data perspective, the path to repair is already emerging—stopping the bleeding is just a matter of time as long as the tax burden in these two markets does not continue to increase; however, if the tax rate continues to climb, the marginal improvement brought by the management reshuffle may be submerged in a deeper cost depression.
The domestic lottery in France is as solid as a rock, retail gambling faces brief headwinds
In contrast to the struggle in foreign markets, FDJ's domestic lottery and retail sports gambling segments in France appear much more stable. In the first quarter, this segment's gross gambling income remained flat at 1.74 billion euros, with revenue slightly down by 2% to 627 million euros, with a 15 million euros increase in taxes being the main drag. The company attributed this to short-term disturbances at the end of the quarter—weak event attractiveness and a high payout rate in retail sports gambling, both of which pressed down the performance. Breaking down by channel, offline sales in France fell by 3% year-on-year to 546 million euros, but online lottery revenue increased slightly by 1% to 81 million euros. FDJ expects that as these short-term factors fade, the domestic segment in France is still expected to achieve revenue growth over the full year.
PASA official website continues to track European gambling tax policies and operator financial reports, noting that FDJ's situation is quite representative in the current European gambling industry. When the UK doubles the remote gambling tax to 40% and the Netherlands continues to tighten regulatory and tax frameworks, multinational operators face not just a quarter's profit erosion but need systemic adjustments from asset portfolios to management structures. FDJ's leadership change and platform upgrade in the UK and Dutch markets are essentially a strategic redeployment in the tax headwind zone—if the market cannot be exited, then a new strategy must be adopted to continue the fight.
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