Bookmaker News – Bookies in a Rush for French Affiliation

April 12th, 2010 / paul

I bumped into a former colleague at a cafe in town last week and, as you do, we got to talking about the betting scene and about France in particular. Now this man has fingers in a lot of pies, figuratively speaking, and over an overpriced cafe americano and custard slice, tarte aux creme Anglais I think it’s called over the Channel (or should that be La Manche), he gave me some advice. To keep the culinary theme going, get a slice of a major publication or production company in France! Apparently, as you will discover, newspapers, magazines and broadcasters are much in demand by Europe’s major bookmakers seeking a heavyweight sponsor in the French parliament. Yes, it’s that old chestnut – the deregulation of internet gambling in France. Now I’m aware I’m beginning to get a little repetitive on this topic but, take my word for it, this really is a big story both in bookmaking terms and in the overall political arena of Europe. France is the last bastion of totalisation monopoly in Europe and, prior to last year, had fiercely resisted any overture to allow a free gambling market. Now the rules are set to be relaxed, commentators are keeping a close eye on the bidding process to see if the state-owned PMU is afforded priveleges not offered to other interested parties. Hence the sudden rush for bookmakers to affiliate themselves to companies viewed as quintessentially French. Sportingbet have already announced a tie-up with daily paper Le Monde, while Paddy Power is to indirectly supply the technology for the PMU to advertise betting odds and, last week, Ladbrokes and Bwin nailed their colours to the Tricolor. Ladbrokes, who already have a presence in Spain and Belgium, have invested just under £2million in France’s subscription sports channel Canal+, while Bwin have agreed a deal with the Amaury Group, who own sports newspaper L’Equipe. Of course, the aforementioned have the financial clout to engineer such deals. One can’t imagine a back street independent spreading a few betting slips around Armand’s Boucherie would have the same impact – though you could always wrap your saucissons in them.