Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker site, officially announced the launch of FullTiltPoker.fr this week, allowing French players the ability to play on the popular online poker site. The new poker room will be available exclusively for residents of France and French territories as part of the newly established online gambling regulations in the country.
French players were restricted from playing on Full Tilt Poker on July 13, receiving the following message when they logged into the site: “Due to our ongoing application for a French gaming license, real-money transactions and game play have been restricted for players based in France and French Territories. The dedicated French version of our game software will be up and running as soon as possible.”
On July 26, ARJEL (Authority of Regulation of Online Games), the French online gaming regulatory body, granted Full Tilt Poker a license to operate in France. Having met all ARJEL license specification requirements, Full Tilt was given the green light to offer its games and services to players in France.
Among the list of poker professionals supporting FullTiltPoker.fr are French players David Benyamine, a World Series of Poker bracelet and World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris winner, and European Poker Tour champ Pascal ‘PPTHEBANDIT’ Perrault. Both players are part of the vast stable of Full Tilt Red Pros.
According to PokerScout.com‘s Online Poker Traffic Report on Wednesday, FullTiltPoker.fr already ranks 25th in the world in ring game traffic, with an average of 235 players on its site. PokerStars.fr leads the French market and ranks ninth in the world in traffic with a seven-day average of 1,520 players, while Everest Poker comes in 10th with an average of 1,280 players. Also ranking in the top 20 are OnGame.fr (17th, 750 players) and PartyPoker.fr (20th, 660 players).
With the addition of Full Tilt, PKR, and seven other sites last week, the list of ARJEL licensees now comes up to 27. The first 11 licenses were issued in June, a list that included Bwin, ChiliGaming, PartyGaming, Everest Poker, BetClic, and Paddy Power. PokerStars, iPoker and Microgaming were granted licenses in July.