Operating in France: be careful what you wish for 17/11/2009

Jake Pollard, acting editor

‘BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR’ might be what some of the sports betting operators in France are telling themselves through gritted teeth right now.

The tax rates the French government plans to impose on sports betting operators (lest we forget, 7.5% + 1% to sports out of a maximum pay out ratio of 85%) as part of the online gaming and betting regulation next year are one thing, but some of the extra regulatory constraints they are planning really stick in the craw.

Française des Jeux and Pari Mutuel Urbain will continue to dominate the market massively after the regulation is enacted.

So why ask that operators shut down existing accounts and not register new ones in the period when the law is voted through by the Senate and the licences are handed out some six months later?

A sports betting right imposed on operators is a highly contentious issue from a legal point of view, and could open up a whole raft of issues further down the line.

Also, FDJ and PMU will continue to make a lot more from lotteries and horse racing pool betting than they ever would from fixed odds betting.

In fact, to all intents and purposes, PMU has kept its monopoly in all but name.

The private operators are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Accept such a set up and they run the risk of being seriously wounded up to six month before they are even able to advertise and recruit players.

Turn round and refuse to get licensed and the French government can denounce ‘these companies that are given the opportunity to work on French soil but are refusing it because they don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes’.

You have to admit, French officials are playing this one beautifully.

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Posted: 17/11/2009