Amaya's Rational Group deal sanctioned by French regulator
ARJEL clears PokerStars holding company Reel Malta Ltd to continue to operate after change of ownership
Amaya’s acquisition of the Rational Group has been sanctioned by the French regulator ARJEL after it agreed its licence to operate in the country should remain intact.
Reel Malta Limited, the holding company and licence holder for pokerstars.fr, notified the regulator on 13 June “ the day after the deal was first announced “ that a change of ownership was to take place.
ARJEL subsequently invited the company to re-submit its licence application and Reel Malta complied, submitting the application on 23 June followed by additional evidence to answer questions raised by the regulator.
The application was then deliberated over and yesterday ARJEL agreed to transfer the licence, originally granted on 25 June 2010, for the remainder of its term and under the same conditions that it was originally issued under.
ARJEL concluded that the change of ownership would not affect its “technical, economic and financial capacity to carry out its activities”.
Pokerstars.fr is currently France’s second-largest online poker room behind market-leader Winamax.
While Amaya’s acquisition of the Rational Group has been agreed to in principle, it has yet to receive approval from various regulatory bodies, including anti-competitive authorities and the Toronto stock exchange.