Winamax managing director Frichet to stand down
Canel Frichet to leave the French poker operator at the end of September
Winamax managing director Canel Frichet is to stand down from her position at the end of this month.
Frichet joined the company as chief operating officer in August 2007 and became managing director in 2010 .
Under her management Winamax became the leading operator for cash-game poker traffic in the French market and added a free-to-play poker offering for US residents to its portfolio in October last year.
“I want to sincerely thank you for your collaboration, Winamax is now a top leader in the market,” she said in a brief email announcing her departure.
Winamax has been unavailable for comment and is yet to issue a statement regarding Frichet’s resignation.
Frichet’s resignation comes at a time when the French poker market is suffering from a declining player base and a fall in gross gambling revenue (GGR), which has led to a number of operators to return their licenses.
The French regulatory body l’Autorité de regulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) revealed that GGR fell 14% year-on-year to 2.7bn for the six months ended 30 June 2013, with the number of active players falling 7% to 906,000.
Barriere Poker recently became the latest operator to close its French online poker room, citing difficulties in the country’s regulated online poker market.