程阳：法国网上博彩市场2011分析报告

2010Q3 to 2012Q1

【中文版分析年度报告全文】

French online market overview

France regulated its online gaming and betting market in the summer of 2010 and the diagnosis is far from rosy as it marks its second anniversary.

It is a well-worn industry truism that if the Italian experience is the poster child for regulation of online gaming, then France is the perfect example of how not to open up an online gaming market. Very few operators within the country have remained unscathed by the experience of being regulated in France. It had the potential to provide a major lift to many operators, but it signally failed to do so.

Yet there are signs of optimism within the market. Recent months has seen a number of small operators begin once again to look at opening up to French customers, with Jeux 365 being the latest to throw its hat into the ring in March. Others smaller names, meanwhile, have been bought out by bigger players, as happened with Eurosportbet being acquired by Unibet for a total of €7m, enabling the former Eurosportbet directors Oliver Ou Ramdane and Sébastien Bougon to pocket a tidy profit from the deal - they bought the company from main shareholder TF1 for nothing as part of a management buy-out in May 2011.

Another small player, horseracing operator Betnet, went into receivership in December 2011and sold its remaining assets – its customers’ accounts - to France Pari for €50,000, although the company still owed the French treasury close to €1m in unpaid taxes.

The main culprit for this state of affairs, as ever, is the oft-criticised taxation system on player stakes rather than on operators’ gross gaming revenues, a system that many argue is structurally loss-making and incompatible with the business models of many online operators. Hopes of any positive changes were dashed by the results from the recent elections. The victory of Francois Hollande and his socialist party in the Presidential and parliamentary polls have put a stop to any impetus there might have been for a change in the legislation.

This means a switch to a tax on gross gaming revenues, the one measure that operators would like to see implemented above all others, is very unlikely in 2012 and is now unlikely to happen in in the following years either.

It is too early to say whether the Socialists will be in total opposition to any relaxation of the regulatory framework surrounding the sector, while a rise in the tax levels coupled with the maintaining of the tax on stakes, something which cannot be ruled out, remains the biggest worry for the sector in France.