French Poker Sites Get major Investors

5/26/10 – Online poker company Winamax Holdings, which operates an online poker site on the Ongame Network, has topped up its finances with a Euro 12 million investment from AGF, a French private equity company.
 
Winamax chief exec Marc Simoncini, says the funds will be mainly invested in extensive marketing in order to make Winamax one of the top two internet poker sites in France, taking advantage of the imminent liberalisation of the market in that country.
 
Launched in 1999, Winamax is a British company based in London, according to its website. Originally focused on online sports betting and the "Jeu de l'Entraîneur" game, the company proved to be popular among football fans, but is nowadays exclusively devoted to online poker.
 
Its shareholders are Marc Simoncini (CEO of online dating service Meetic), Alexandre Roos and Christophe Schaming (Caramail), and Patrick Bruel (singer, actor and World Series of Poker champion).
 
The trio joined forces to focus on collaborating on what they know best: poker, people and online networking.
 
"We've completed [our] fundraising with AGF Private Equity," said Simoncini this week, adding that the funds would mainly be devoted to marketing activities. 
 
"I strongly believe in this project, which in some respects is not unlike Meetic," Simoncini told a Capital.fr journalist. "It is recruiting players and facilitates a community. We can deploy significant technical and media expertise in this enterprise, and, thanks to Patrick Bruel, very impressive poker skills."