Partouche’s online partnership in Belgium unaffected by casino sale

French casino operator Groupe Partouche has sold one of its four casinos in Belgium to licensed online and land-based gaming operator Napoleon Games for €16.5m, although the company’s existing partnerships for online operations in Belgium remain unaffected by the deal.

Partouche has completed the sale of Casino Knokke for €16.5m, as well as a number of other assets in Spain and France for a combined €9.8m.

The operator, which has been struggling to pay debts of some €230m, said that the sale did not include Jackpotparty.be which operates under an A+ licence issued to the casino. Jackpotparty.be was launched in April of this year through an online gaming partnership with Williams Interactive, the online gaming arm of WMS Industries.

The company said that this licence will now be transferred to another casino of the group.

Partouche owns three other casinos in Belgium which it operates under its Belcasinos subsidiary, including Casino van Oostende, Casino van Dinant, Casino de Chaudfontaine.

Both Casino van Oostende and Casino van Dinant already have deals for online operations in Belgium through bwin.be and Partouche.be respectively, although Casino de Chaudfontaine currently does not have any deals in place for online operations.

Last year Casino Knokke generated gross gaming revenues of €12.1m, contributing positively to Partouche’s consolidated EBITDA of €0.9m.

The casino has been sold to Napoleon Games, an established gaming operator in Belgium which owns a number of land-based amusement arcades. It also operates an online gaming platform at NapoleonGames.be, including games provided by Bell-Fruit Games, with a sports betting solution provided by Unibet’s Kambi.

In addition to the Belgian casino, Partouche also sold a property complex which was previously part of Casino San Roque in Spain for €2m, the former casino La Grande Motte in Hérault (France), for €4.5m, as well as other property in Vichy for €3.3m.

The sale comes as Partouche struggles to pay debts of some €230m, with the operator seeking creditor protection in October.

Meanwhile, Partouche has appointed Jean- François Largillière as the company’s chief operating officer. Largillière joined the company in 1993, managing several hotels before taking over the Hotel du Domaine de Divonne complex in 2008. Fabrice Paire remains as CEO of the company.