FDJ UNITED is a publicly listed French company, not a department of the French government or a privately owned business controlled by a single founder. Its legal parent is La Française des Jeux SA, listed on Euronext Paris. At 31 December 2025, the French state held 21.1% of its share capital, veterans' associations held 15.7% collectively, and employee share investment funds held 4.0%. The remainder was held by other investors. These are dated capital figures, not a live register of every holder or their voting rights.
Who owns shares, who can vote, who has special legal oversight and who runs the company are four different questions. They are especially important here because the French state retains powers that cannot be measured simply by reading its percentage of capital. Our FDJ UNITED company overview explains the wider group's activities; this page focuses on the people and rights behind its decisions.
Who Owns FDJ UNITED?
The company became listed in November 2019, when the French state reduced its ownership through privatisation. It remains a French société anonyme, a public limited company subject to French corporate law and additional rules applicable to its regulated activities.
Listing changed the shareholder base and created a wider market in its shares. It did not cancel the company's French legal identity, remove the state from its register or erase the state's special supervision of specified governance matters. FDJ UNITED is also a corporate trading name: the listed legal issuer remains La Française des Jeux SA.
The listed share has ISIN FR0013451333 and trades on Euronext Paris under FDJU. This identifies the parent company. It does not identify an ultimate individual owner, nor does the market price reveal who controls a particular vote at a general meeting.
Local operating companies and consumer brands are distinct from the French listed parent. A customer-facing brand does not issue the parent's publicly traded shares.
The Major Disclosed Shareholders
The 2025 consolidated financial statements identify the following broad ownership categories as at 31 December 2025. The percentages refer to share capital, not voting rights. They are rounded as disclosed by FDJ UNITED.
| Holder or category | Share capital | Basis and date |
|---|---|---|
| French state | 21.1% | FY2025 consolidated accounts, 31 December 2025 |
| Veterans' associations, collectively | 15.7% | Same reporting date and basis |
| Employee share investment funds | 4.0% | Same reporting date and basis |
| Other shareholders | Not listed here as one verified percentage | Institutional and private holders; individual positions and dates vary |
Source: FDJ UNITED consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025, Note 1. The remaining holders are a broad category of investors rather than a single shareholder.
The veterans' category includes long-standing associations connected with the group's history, including organisations such as the Union des Blessés de la Face et de la Tête (UBFT) and the Fédération Nationale André Maginot (FNAM). The company reports a combined interest. Splitting the 15.7% between named organisations without a matching dated register would produce an unsupported ownership table.
Employee investment funds are a collective ownership category, not evidence that each employee owns an equal share or exercises identical voting rights.
The remainder includes institutional and retail investors, both French and international. Ownership in a listed company can change through trading, threshold notifications and corporate actions. The broad 2025 categories are a reliable historical snapshot, but they cannot substitute for a fully reconciled current register as of 7 November 2026.
FDJ UNITED's governance webpage also displays a rounded split dated 14 March 2025. It should not be merged with the more recent 31 December 2025 accounting snapshot.
Capital, Voting Power and Special State Rights
Three different mechanisms affect influence at FDJ UNITED. A shareholder's percentage of capital measures its economic stake. Its share of voting rights measures the formal votes attached to its shares under applicable rules. Special oversight powers may arise from legislation and company governance arrangements even when the state does not own a majority of shares.
| Layer of influence | What it means | Evidence and limit |
|---|---|---|
| Share capital | Proportion of issued equity held by an investor | French state: 21.1% at 31 December 2025 |
| Voting rights | Votes that may be exercised at shareholder meetings | Can exceed the capital percentage; requires a dated voting-rights denominator |
| Special public oversight | Approval or supervisory powers reserved under the French legal framework | Applies to defined governance and threshold events; not the same as owning over 50% |
| Executive management | Responsibility for day-to-day leadership and operational decisions | Exercised by appointed directors and executives, subject to governance and law |
FDJ UNITED's articles provide for double voting rights on qualifying fully paid registered shares held continuously by the same shareholder for at least two years. This helps explain why an investor's share of votes may differ from its percentage of capital. It does not mean that every share has two votes or that a 21.1% capital stake can simply be doubled to calculate the state's voting percentage.
The 2024 Universal Registration Document provides a useful exact example. At 31 December 2024, the French state held 21.09% of capital but 28.66% of voting rights. These are figures for the same historical reporting date. They must not be presented as the state's exact voting position at 31 December 2025 or today.
A declaration published on 6 March 2026 reported 185,270,000 issued shares, approximately 266.98 million theoretical voting rights and 266.33 million exercisable votes as at 28 February 2026. Theoretical rights include votes whose exercise is restricted. These totals alone do not establish the state's current percentage of votes.
The state has additional rights under the framework governing FDJ. The 2025 accounts describe approval by the ministers responsible for the Budget and the Economy for appointments of the Chair, Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officers, and for specified shareholding threshold crossings at 10% or multiples of 10% of capital. State representation on the board and regulatory arrangements governing exclusive-rights operations are further components of the framework.
These powers are material. They can affect appointments or changes in significant holdings even if other investors together own more shares. But calling the state a majority shareholder or assuming that it can unilaterally pass every ordinary shareholder resolution would be incorrect. Regulatory permission, corporate votes and operational decisions belong to different legal processes.
What Privatisation Changed, and What Survived
The 2019 listing opened FDJ's capital more widely to market investors and reduced the French state's direct equity holding. It did not turn the company into a newly established private start-up. The business has a much longer institutional history associated with French national lottery arrangements, while the present legal issuer has its own subsequent corporate history.
That distinction also matters for claims about a founder. It would be misleading to identify one entrepreneur as the private founder and continuing owner of FDJ UNITED. The current group is the outcome of public institutional origins, corporate transformation, a stock-market listing and later acquisitions. A modern chief executive is not automatically the historical founder.
The company still operates defined French lottery and retail sports betting activities under exclusive rights. Those rights are linked to legal obligations and oversight rather than the idea of an unregulated private concession. The state retains a shareholder position and special supervisory prerogatives while FDJ UNITED operates as a listed commercial group.
In our view, describing FDJ UNITED as simply “state-owned” or simply “private” loses the most useful information. It is a listed company with mixed ownership and an unusually important public-law overlay. That arrangement can support continuity while complicating the assumption that ordinary shareholder voting alone determines every significant governance outcome. The fuller chronology belongs in our privatisation and acquisition history.
Who Leads FDJ UNITED?
Stéphane Pallez is FDJ UNITED's Chair and Chief Executive Officer. Her position combines leadership of the board with executive responsibility. The group also has a Deputy Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Committee responsible for major operating and corporate functions.
The integration of Kindred and a 2026 reshuffle changed several prominent posts. A 2025 biography naming Pascal Chaffard as CFO therefore describes an earlier management structure.
| Person | Verified role | Timing / clarification |
|---|---|---|
| Stéphane Pallez | Chair and Chief Executive Officer | Identified in 2026 issuer governance and results materials |
| Charles Lantieri | Deputy Chief Executive Officer | Also chairs the FDJ Corporate Foundation; distinct from CEO |
| Dan Lévy | Chief Financial Officer | Appointment announced 21 April 2026; effective 18 May 2026 |
| Pascal Chaffard | Chief Online Betting and Gaming Officer; Group Strategy and Operational Transformation | Remit announced 19 February 2026; succeeded in the CFO role by Lévy |
| Célia Verot | Group General Secretary, Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer | Combined remit effective 1 January 2026 |
Sources: FDJ UNITED Executive Committee announcements of 19 February and 21 April 2026, and the company's published governance information.
Lévy's appointment was announced on 21 April 2026 and took effect on 18 May. Earlier biographies naming Chaffard as CFO describe the management structure before that handover.
Chaffard's shift to the online division and strategic transformation also has economic significance. FDJ UNITED's expansion through Kindred created a larger and more geographically complex online business. Giving one executive a remit spanning that division and operational transformation aligns management responsibility with the integration and performance programme. It does not, by itself, establish that every technological or financial target has been achieved.
Pallez remains the central figure connecting board leadership and group execution. Still, the title “CEO” should not be confused with sole ownership or unchecked personal control. Management acts within the company's articles, board authority, shareholder decisions and sector-specific regulatory framework.
The Board and How Governance Operates
The Board of Directors provides formal governance and oversight; the Executive Committee manages the group under the relevant executive delegations. Board membership incorporates different constituencies, including representation connected with the French state, employees and employee shareholders. These roles matter because a board seat is not the same instrument as a shareholder's voting percentage at the annual general meeting.
The 2025 Universal Registration Document discusses state-related board representation under the French rules applicable to companies in which the government holds an interest. It also describes employee directors and the governance committees. Directors representing employees have duties as directors; they are not merely messengers for the individuals whose category they represent.
Different committees address areas such as audit, risk, governance and remuneration, while the board handles reserved strategic and oversight decisions. Executive managers then implement operational plans. These oversight and operating roles distribute responsibility; committee membership alone does not establish personal control of the company's investment or licensing decisions.
We have deliberately not reproduced a complete name-by-name board list assembled from third-party directories. Such lists can be out of date after an annual meeting.
For readers concerned about the legal consequences of special rights and market permissions, the relevant next question is covered in our regulatory and governance risks analysis, rather than by attaching an unsupported control percentage to a director.
Where Kindred's Former Leadership Fits
FDJ UNITED's acquisition of Kindred altered the group's business perimeter, but it did not make Kindred's old listed-company management the present board of the French parent. The acquisition was consolidated from 11 October 2024; Kindred thereafter became part of the wider FDJ structure rather than remaining an independently traded parent of the combined group.
Nils Andén, formerly associated with Kindred's leadership, became FDJ UNITED's head of Online Betting and Gaming and oversaw the integration of the acquired business. In its 19 February 2026 Executive Committee announcement, FDJ UNITED said he was leaving to pursue other projects. Pascal Chaffard then took over the online remit. Calling Andén the current FDJ UNITED CEO would therefore confuse both the company and the period.
Nor should a Kindred brand be treated as a shareholder in the listed parent. Unibet and 32Red are customer-facing businesses in the group's wider portfolio; Relax Gaming is a technology supplier. The corporate and operator relationships are explored separately in our brands and corporate subsidiaries analysis.
A locally responsible manager or regulated operator is not automatically a director of La Française des Jeux SA.
What the Disclosures Do Not Settle
The best-supported simple ownership answer remains the 31 December 2025 capital snapshot: state 21.1%, veterans' associations 15.7% collectively and employee investment funds 4.0%. The 2024 capital-and-votes figures demonstrate the legal difference between ownership and voting influence, but they are not a live 2026 voting-rights table.
The company's periodic total-share and total-vote disclosures do not by themselves reconcile each current investor's beneficial ownership or voting allocation. A complete up-to-date shareholder register would require aligned dates, threshold notifications and the relevant formal ownership disclosures. We cannot reliably calculate all minor holdings or infer an undisclosed voting coalition simply by subtracting three percentages from 100.
FDJ UNITED is a listed company with a substantial minority French state stake, other established shareholders, special state oversight and professional executive management. Its ownership and control depend on the interaction of share capital, voting rights, public oversight and executive authority.
For investors interested in what the ownership structure means for returns rather than control, our separate FDJ UNITED share price, dividends and outlook page addresses that different question.