PMU loses horseracing pooling battle
French Competition Authority demands PMU discontinues its pooling of land-based and online bets after Betclic wins long-running battle
Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) will be required to separate horseracing liquidity between its retail and online activities by 30 September 2015 after the French Competition Authority ruled in favour of complainant Betclic Everest Group.
Betclic lodged a formal complaint against its rival French operator last year, arguing that PMU held an unfair advantage through its monopoly of the land-based horseracing market, which it uses to pool bets with those made online.
PMU accepted the Authority’s decision which will see pmu.fr consist only of bets placed by online customers recorded via the website, bringing the operators practices in line with the rest of horserace betting market.
Betclic CEO Isabelle Andres said she was pleased with the Authority’s decision despite it taking more than five years since the market first opened to achieve a more level playing field.
“With these new market conditions the online horseracing betting market will finally be able to become competitive,” Andres said.
“These new market rules will put all companies operating on the online horseracing market on an equal footing, and will enable us to invest in our horseracing betting business and become an influential operator in that market,” she added.
Today’s verdict confirmed previous reports by eGaming Review that the Authority would this month rule in favour of Betclic.
PMU currently dominates French online horseracing betting with around an 85% share of the market, despite its latest results showing a slight decline in its overall business.
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