The group declared sports betting and gaming revenue growth of 10.5% to €1.2bn for the entirety of H1 2026 (€1bn). As the merger between Betclic and Tipico was completed in April, this revenue comes from both before and after the merger.
Banijay attributed this revenue growth to a 22% year-on-year growth in unique active players, with particularly strong engagement during the final stages of the Champions League – likely benefiting from Paris Saint-Germain progress to the final.
As with other sportsbooks, the World Cup also contributed revenues with Banijay citing “record activity”. However, the firm has also stated that the World Cup only made a “partial contribution” due to the tournament continuing into Q3 and beyond the H1 reporting period.
Betting revenue rose 8.6% YoY, while gaming, poker and turf combined revenue was up 18.3%.
François Riahi, CEO of Banijay Group, said that the company “delivered a solid first-half performance, with solid revenue growth across the group and record player engagement in sports betting and gaming”.
“The FIFA World Cup generated unprecedented player acquisition and engagement, supported double-digit pro forma revenue growth and strengthened our ability to grow across all products,” he continued.
New leadership for Banijay’s continental vision
Banijay Group is a French multinational conglomerate, with its Gaming arm being one of two divisions, the other being Banijay Entertainment – a major television production joint venture with UK firm RedBird Media.
The group has been doggedly pursuing expansion across both gaming and entertainment over the past year. In the latter field, Banijay Group created the world’s largest independent media production company in June via the merger between Bainjay Entertainment and All3Media.
The entertainment division’s media portfolio includes hugely popular programmes like MasterChef, The Traitors, Big Brother, Survivor, Race Across the World and Peaky Blinders.
On the gaming side of things, which will be overseen by Jouteau, the company’s chief asset for many years was Betclic, founded in 2005 by the above-mentioned Béraud along with Eric Moncada, who left the firm in 2012.
Bainjay Gaming came into existence with the acquisition of Tipico earlier this year, which was subsequently merged with Betclic to form the new division. The acquisition of Tipico also included the Admiral Austria retail sports betting brand.
Tipico is the dominant player in Germany with a Competitive Earnings Baseline (CEB) of US$431bn on the Blask Index. In Austria, Admiral is the second biggest with a CEB of $121m.
In France, Betclic is the second largest after Parions Sports with a CEB of $612m.
The French market is also highly competitive, however, with major multinational player bet365 having launched in France in late May and already securing a ninth place position on Blask’s index.
The market is also subject to rigorous taxation, with a rate of 59.3% on gross gaming revenue (GGR) from online betting alone.
Nonetheless, it is still one of the five largest in Europe and the continued talk around the launch of an online casino market legalisation has got a lot of companies interested. This may be one of the motives behind Banijay’s acquisition of casino firm JOA, agreed in June 2026 but yet to be completed.
JOA CEO Laurent Lassiaz, who will remain Chairman of the business under Banijay ownership, praised the acquisition as creating “new means to pursue our ambitions in France and internationally”.
Jouteau brings tech background to Banijay
So, what will Jouteau bring to the table for Banijay? The new CEO has a background in leadership roles at publicly listed firms, particularly digitally-focused ones.
Jouteau became CEO of French classified ads company Leboncoin in 2015, six years after joining as Director of Business Development in 2009.
He went on to become CEO of the platform’s owner, Norwegian classified ads firm Adevinta, filling the leadership role between 2022-2024, before returning to the CEO role at Leboncoin between 2024-2025.
Banijay has praised its new CEO’s proven “strong business and execution mindset”, alongside a “proven ability to drive growth and innovation” and his “deep expertise in technology, particularly in data and artificial intelligence”.
Commenting on H1 results, Banijay Group CEO Riahi said: “2026 is definitely a transformational year for Banijay Group.
“The successful acquisition of Tipico, the completion of the combination of Banijay Entertainment and All3Media, and the proposed acquisition of JOA in France grant to the group more scale, more diversity in terms of geography, channels of distribution, and a better strategic positioning to achieve all its strategic goals, creating new opportunities for both growth and value creation.”
He concluded: “In H2, we will enhance the integration processes in our two business units and will start delivering synergies. The addition of Antoine Jouteau to our set up, who will join the group as CEO of sports betting and gaming activities, will be key in this context.”
Dingnews,com 29/07/2026