TLDR
- FDJ United will keep its Unibet brand in the UK despite a 24.1% drop in Kindred UK gross gaming revenue in Q1
- UK remote gaming duty nearly doubled from 21% to 40% of GGR in April, adding further financial pressure
- Total group GGR rose 1% to €2.175 billion, but online betting and gaming revenue fell 8%
- New gaming chief Pascal Chaffard says departments were too siloed and plans to fix collaboration issues
- FDJ expects the UK turnaround to take “some quarters” rather than years
FDJ United has confirmed it will not pull its Unibet brand from the United Kingdom, even as the operator faces falling revenue and a sharp tax increase in the market.
The French gambling group’s new betting and gaming chief Pascal Chaffard made the comments during the company’s Q1 2025 earnings call on April 22.
FDJ reported that its Kindred UK gross gaming revenue dropped 24.1% in the first quarter. The decline came as the UK government raised remote gaming duty from 21% to 40% of GGR, effective April 2026.
The company also faced difficulties in the Netherlands, where recent tax hikes have weighed on performance.
Total group GGR for Q1 rose 1% to €2.175 billion. Revenue across the group dipped 3% to €895 million.
Online Betting Unit Posts Declines
The online betting and gaming division, made up of FDJ’s Kindred operations, saw GGR fall 1% and revenue drop 8% during the quarter.
When stripping out results from the UK and Netherlands, the picture looked better. Online betting and gaming GGR grew 6%, while revenue slipped just 1%.
Chaffard recently moved from the CFO role to lead a strategic turnaround of the online betting and gaming unit. When asked directly whether FDJ would consider leaving the UK, he pushed back on the idea.
He told analysts that Unibet’s UK market share sits in the low single digits but that the business remains profitable.
“We don’t have any intention to withdraw from the UK,” Chaffard said. “The point is that we have some problems to solve.”
He added that competitors had managed to grow while staying compliant with UK regulations. “We are not less smart than them,” he said.
Chaffard Points to Internal Collaboration as Key Fix
Chaffard identified a lack of coordination between departments as a core issue holding back the UK business.
He said marketing, product, responsible gaming, and anti-money laundering teams had been working in silos. Each department was pushing its own initiatives without sitting around the same table.
FDJ said in its Q1 report that it had already launched “targeted task forces” in both the UK and Netherlands to improve collaboration across teams.
“What I’ve done is to take all the specialists and lock them in the same room,” Chaffard told analysts. He said the different elements of the business are “totally linked.”
Chaffard also said the problems in the UK are not deep or structural. He described them as issues with how teams work together and implement measures.
He told analysts the turnaround would not take years. Instead, he expects it to be a matter of “some quarters” before the company sees improvement.
“There is absolutely no question of getting out of the UK,” he said. “The top priority is to fix this problem.”
FDJ said it plans to continue investing in compliance while finding ways to return the UK business to growth in the coming quarters.
