FDJ United is considering M&A opportunities in online lottery to facilitate entry into the US gaming market, CEO Stéphane Pallez has revealed.
The operator reported revenue of €3.7bn (£3.2bn) for 2025 in its latest set of financial results, with lottery continuing to deliver the lion’s share.
FDJ United holds a monopoly on France’s lottery, as well as running the Irish National Lottery via Premier Lotteries Ireland.
Speaking on FDJ United’s analyst call on Thursday, 19 February, Pallez said the company may look to target M&A opportunities to bolster its international lottery business, with the US market cited as an opportunity.
The international lottery arm, which encompasses Ireland, reported a 10.7% decline in revenue to €169.9m, although an uptick in recurring EBITDA to €38.3m.
Pallez said: “On M&A, we are deleveraging at a reasonable pace and will continue to do so, which gives us financial capacity to do M&A.
“The question for M&A is more of an operational question, particularly on the online betting and gaming side, which is, ‘are there opportunities and capacity to do small M&A in the context of the tech migration we want to pursue?’ It is not our priority.
“M&A or tenders or investment is more of a question related to our international lottery business. We are already active in looking for opportunities in a realistic way.
“At this point, with small initiatives in terms of investment, in the US we believe we have opportunity to be present in the online lottery development, which as we know is not as mature as the French or European market.”
Pallez added that online lottery presents more of a concrete opportunity in the US than sports betting, which the operator has no desire to engage with.
She continued: “We have been competing in partnering with other actors in tenders or renewal of licence that do include online lottery development in which we consider to have a good track record and experience.
“We’re not at all looking at sports betting in the US market, and in a way we’re happy not to be because we see that that market is already questioned about potential disruption from other types of activities.”
Taxes were cited as a major factor in for the decrease in online gaming revenue, with FDJ United shelling out more than €50m in tax after significant increases across its core European markets.
In France, online sports betting taxes for operators rose from 54.9% to 59.3% of GGR in 2025, while the 2025 French Finance Act also introduced a levy on the profits of companies that generate more than €1bn in the country, which impacted FDJ United to the tune of €26.7m.
Taxes in the Netherlands increased from 30.5% to 34.2% of GGR last year, and has subsequently risen again to 37.8% in 2026.
Romania’s tax rate went from 21% of GGR to 30% in August 2025, while Rachel Reeves announced during the Autumn Budget that remote gaming duty in the UK will spike to 40% of GGR in April 2026.
CFO Pascal Chaffard shed light on the impact that the UK’s tax increase will have on the operator.
He said: “The impact related to the UK is around €30m in 2026. It will raise to over €40m in 2027 as it will begin on the 1 April, so there is an annual effect in 2027.
“The tax will be raised in 2026 on the online casino side, and in 2027 on the sports betting side. Happily in the UK our split is 85% casino, 15% sports betting.”
Chaffard will soon step up to the role of chief online betting and gaming officer at FDJ United, after the operator announced that Nils Andén was stepping down from the position to “pursue other projects”.
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The post FDJ United sets sights on lottery M&A for US market entry first appeared on EGR Intel.
CEO Stéphane Pallez says the operator has no desire to engage with sports betting in North America due to “potential disruption from other types of activities”
The post FDJ United sets sights on lottery M&A for US market entry first appeared on EGR Intel.