Barrière Poker throws in chips

Lucien Barrière and French lottery operator Française des jeux who in a partnership operate Barrière Poker have announced the site will close at the end of September following poor results over the last two years.

However it has been announced the company will instead offer their services now to the B2B market with their partnership with US operator Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) being the main customer with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) platform.

The company put the failure of Barrière Poker down to other online poker operators establishing themselves prior to online regulations in France, allowing those operators to secure a strong foothold in the region and hence making it extremely difficult for them to compete.

In a press release the company stated, “Before the law regulating the market (May 2010), a number of operators had already established their positions for several years with French players, gaining business experience and consolidating player databases. From this point of view, the lack of market growth did not lead to a redistribution of the cards in favor of the new French players like BarrièrePoker.fr.

“The company draws the lessons from an internet market sensitive to economic conditions and structurally bearish for over a year now, with (its performance) worsening quarter after quarter.”