Your guest now in the big interview live on Boursorama is Stéphane Pallez, the CEO of Française des Jeux. Hello, hello, thank you for being with us on Boursorama. So I looked at the indicators a bit, they are green overall for Française des Jeux: revenue up 11.9% over 9 months, operating margin improving, outlook raised this year. She is happy, Stéphane Pallez.
Me, I am happy when I can beat my objectives and tell my shareholders, and I think that indeed from this point of view we are in a year that is not exceptional because that's what we try to do, but exceptional in terms of both events, outlook, performance, so it's a very beautiful year and it comes after five years of stock market journey since the IPO, which we are objectively very, very proud of, but a lot happened in 2024, so we will certainly talk about it again.
Just a little bit because it's the news: political turbulence, does it or doesn't it have an impact on your activity? People continue to play even if there is no budget, even if there are tax increases to come, even if, even if, well...
I think we are a company, and you should never tempt fate, but a company that has experienced different political situations and has many customers and is increasingly diversified, and I think all that, including obviously our increasingly international character, means we are a much more diversified company in terms of risk and activity, and so we support varied political and economic environments. Today in terms of revenue, France, well before the acquisition of Kindred, France was 90% of our activity. Tomorrow we will be a group with 30% of activity internationally. So France remains obviously our main market and will remain our main market. We are a major operator in the French market, we continue to develop in France, and that is our objective, but indeed we are adding with the acquisition of Kindred since last October a European perimeter that I think is very interesting for the company's profile and for its shareholders.
We'll talk about that, but first I want to know about these tax projects on gambling from the government. Are these projects finally set aside or not? I saw that the Senate voted last week, and you know better than I, an increase in taxes on gambling as part of the examination of the Social Security financing bill. So, increase or not of the tax on gambling, where are we?
So I think like on many subjects, no one knows the conclusion, if I may say so, so it would be very presumptuous of me to say what the conclusion of the parliamentary debates will be, which we know will end after the various stages and notably the joint committee. So it is clear that this debate was opened already in October where there were ideas of taxation. There is an increase in taxes anyway. Already, Française des Jeux will pay because it is a large company, so it will pay more corporate tax, that's a given. Any company, once again, I prefer to wait until the copy is completely dry since the Finance Bill itself is not yet finalized. Moreover, there will very certainly be an increase in social security contributions, that's in the framework of the Social Security Financing Bill on certain gambling segments, and that is the part that is still, I would say, the most unstable today. So we, I would still like to remind that we are a very important contributor to public finances, that is part of our model, so it is fully assumed, and even at the time of privatization, we put in place a tax system that has been stable until now and that has meant that the revenues drawn by the state from Française des Jeux, 4.3 billion last year in tax revenue (I'm not talking about dividends as a shareholder but about public levies), have been drawn by the state from the growth of our activity. So the growth of activity has been beneficial for the company, its shareholders, and beneficial for the state. So that's a pretty good system, frankly. So very clearly, the message is: I am very vigilant about possibly adding taxes that in reality are not very effective in terms of resources for the state since they would ultimately bring relatively little to the state compared to what we bring today and which has regularly increased since we were privatized.
So for you, it's good, there are enough taxes, and like in many sectors, the gambling sector in France is very well taxed compared to what is done abroad. I have no idea, well it is more taxed. It is more taxed, especially in sports betting when you make comparisons. It is more, it's the French model. There are other aspects, regulation is not the same either, so you have to make a global comparison, but we already have very high levels of taxation, and once again they are part of the sector's model, but you have to find the right balance for it to be effective, and let's say you shouldn't distort it too much.
Well, at the end of October, a major threat disappeared with the outcome of the European Commission's investigation into the attribution, you need to explain this, of the monopoly by the French state to Française des Jeux on lottery and physical sports betting. It's a relief because the European Commission ruled, I'll give the figures, tell me if I'm wrong, on an additional price of 97 million euros to be paid to the state for this monopoly of Française des Jeux on sports betting and lottery games. It's less obviously than what you feared. I said that Citibank had mentioned an amount of more than a billion, so finally...
So I did not fear a billion, but as long as my investors did not have a decision from the European Commission, it was a sword of Damocles. So I think it is above all very good news for investors because now they have a decision that says something very important, since there is also an aspect of legal solidity of our model which says that there was no state aid, there was no state aid, so there was an adjustment of the calculation parameters of the balance, which is what we paid to the state to secure these exclusive rights, but the Commission says there was no state aid, and moreover considers that the adjustment of the calculation parameters to make us pay 97 million more than the 380 we had paid at the privatization is correct.
It was a relief when you learned it?
Ah well, it's very good news, it's very good news. This legal risk that weighed on the stock, it must be said, is now lifted. It's very good news and it was rightly welcomed on the markets because many investors that I saw very frequently said: we really like Française des Jeux, we think it's a very good company, your results and performance are excellent, but we need to be fixed on this risk. And today they are fixed, so it's excellent and it's behind us.
Finally behind you. We need to talk about the takeover offer, you mentioned it, Stéphane Pallez, of Kindred, so Unibet which we know well, Unibet which is a success, 99% of the capital or close, are in your hands. Acquisition at 2.5 billion euros, big acquisition, we can say it, you are changing dimension.
We are changing dimension. We are changing dimension because we are changing dimension both quantitatively, since the company will become not twice as big but a good third bigger if we look at all the figures as we project them today, but above all I think we are changing dimension first in terms of international, since we were mainly a French company, we had already acquired the Irish lottery in October 2023, but it is much smaller compared to what we are today. So we become a European player, well that transforms us because we become 30% a European player, we become a player that can already factually today say that it is among the three largest European players and that aspires to be a European leader if not the European leader, it depends how you count, but we are, Flutter is a global player, so if we take the European part, we are in the same league. We are not in the United States, but if we look at the European perimeter and the players that are on the European perimeter, we are today in the court of the top three European leaders. That is both a fact and an ambition, because being a leader is not just a moment of reason, it's a perspective, it's a development that continues over time. It's a sector that is increasingly competitive, so that's the first element: being able to play in the court of the best. And being among the best also brings us a very great diversification of digital, of our activities, of sports betting, of Europe. So we are 30% international, 30% in competition, 30% digital approximately, with around 30% each. So that considerably modifies our profile in a way that I think is very positive because once again diversification is a model we believe in, and now we are more diversified both in terms of segment and market. So that's interesting.
Secondly, we are effectively strengthening our weight in online activities, which are activities that have higher growth rates than physical activity. So we continue to have a very important activity in the network which is growing but with growth rates... How much is the physical network compared to digital today? Today, digital is 14% of our activity if I take the lottery in France, and even our total activity today all included, we are at 14-15% digital. So we go to 30% digital with Kindred on the total.
