Stéphane Pallez, good morning.
So, tell me, when you were a little girl, a child, did you dream of a particular career? Did you dream of being someone, something, a profession perhaps? What was going on in your head?
I didn't necessarily have a very precise idea of a profession. I wanted to be a heroine, an adventure heroine, who does what she wants and therefore who very often is forced to disguise herself as a boy to do what she wanted because in the novels I read or the knight stories, well, there you go. So I was a bit young...
You dreamed of being the first knight heroine like that?
Well, that's a nice dream.
Well, that's a very nice dream. Bravo!
Hello everyone and welcome to the Talk of the Decision-Maker of Le Figaro here at the Revolution Summit at the Palais de Tokyo in the company of a heroine, we can say of business today, Stéphane Pallez, you are CEO of FDJ United, the French lottery of today and the future. So we're going to talk about it, but before that, you worked for a long time, several, yes, more than 10 years in ministerial cabinets. Did you ever imagine that you would hold this job today, CEO of FDJ United? Is it something that was on your mind or did it happen?
It happened. So, it's rather, it happened because in fact, I spent 20 years not only in the ministerial cabinet but at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. 20 years. Yes, that's it. And in fact, in my life, in this ministry, I dealt a lot with companies, privatizations, management of state holdings. So I was very much in contact with companies and in fact that's how it happened, not immediately the French Lottery, but that's how I moved at some point from the public world, but in which I was very linked to economic life, to companies, to the business world, and it's the continuation of a beautiful adventure. A fairly classic pattern ultimately when you are a consultant, you rub shoulders with clients, etc., sometimes there are affinities, topics, things like that.
You want to go do things yourself.
FDJ United, you have been at its head for 12 years now. So, why this name FDJ United? What does it mean? Is the United side the modern side of the thing? The international side?
It's the international side, that is, when I arrived, I was appointed CEO of the French Lottery, a very beautiful heritage company that all French people know, all French people know Loto. So I arrived in a very French company and first of all it's a company that was privatized via an IPO in which we had the largest number of individual shareholders ever in an IPO and we still have them. And then the second transformation was to make it an international company, a European leader in its sector. And it was at the time when we made a very large acquisition of a European online operator. We decided to change our name but not completely because what we want is to rely on our strengths, our roots, our origins, our history. We are very proud of that and at the same time show that now we are in 10 European countries. So United is that. United is FDJ. It's still FDJ. But FDJ international and united around a project.
Is it easy, Stéphane Pallez, to expand, you say a French company that everyone knows, that every French person, maybe 100% of French people know, to make it cross borders, even neighboring countries? Is it a much more difficult mission?
It's not easy. It's an adventure. It's, when you love adventure, well it's an adventure to transform a French heritage company into a European leader. It's an adventure that many French companies have succeeded in.
How did you succeed? How did you succeed in this adventure? What are the keys to crossing borders when you are a French baby like that?
Well, the keys I think are both being proud of your origins, being, if I may say, solid on your bases. So our bases are our marketing expertise, our technological expertise, our economic and social impact which is part of the company's history and what we do as a company. And it's to rely on your bases but also to be modest and open to the fact that what is good when you go international is that you meet, you learn new things, you integrate companies that bring you things you don't know how to do or that they do better than us. And so when we bought Kindred which was a leader in online gaming.
It was in 2024. So we launched in 2024 and it was finalized in 2025. Sorry, it became effective early 2025. And so when we acquired Kindred, we acquired it because we thought they would accelerate us in online gaming and that's the case today because today we have 30% of our revenue in online gaming. That wouldn't be the case without the acquisition. So that's the secret, it's this balance between our strengths and the ability to integrate with different companies, different cultures. Very important and to be a European company. That's a real adventure.
That's a real adventure. We'll talk again about the experiences you offer because your business model is the lottery. So the lottery, Loto, earlier, it's something that sticks to this word as something a bit outdated, something almost vintage, the term lottery. And you tell me the opposite, it's today more modern than ever and inventive and creative. So I think...
I think the secret of the company's success is its ability to use iconic products, iconic brands and things that are in the heart of cultural and social habits and constantly renovate them to accompany the evolution of society and the economy. So Loto, it exists indeed, it was created in 76. It's the first Loto draw. So we're going to celebrate 50 years this year, but it is both vintage in the sense that everyone knows what it is, everyone understands the idea, and at the same time, it is completely different since the first draw, only Parisians played with paper tickets. Well today, 16 million French people play in 29,000 points of sale and online. And on their smartphone.
