BetClic's Beraud: expect action against unlicensed operators

BetClic chief executive Nicolas Beraud has said he is “waiting for the first actions today” by French authorities against unlicensed operators active in the newly re-regulated market.

Speaking on the CEO panel at EGR Live yesterday alongside PKR chief Malcolm Graham and PokerStrategy.com head Dominik Kofert, the chief executive of the Mangas Gaming-owned operator (centre) said: “They have told us for two years that they will be very aggressive with illegal operators and they will pursue and block them very quickly, we are waiting for the first actions today.”

Beraud said he anticipated this would involve French authorities enforcing an advertising ban on unlicensed operators. “We have seen in Italy that the blocking of websites is not necessarily very efficient, however, without a licence, you cannot advertise, and at the end, not being able to advertise makes the difference.”

However, the BetClic chief also told the audience that French authorities had created the problem by not including casino games in the regulation and setting such a high tax rate.

“The taxation is really too high, three to four times that in the UK or Italy. Which can motivate customers to go on the website that is not regulated in France to have better odds. Casino games are extremely important, they create the margin for sports book operators. The customers playing on casino games until now in France [will] not stop playing because there is no licence for these games, so they will try to go to unlicensed operators. That is not good.”

Beraud argued it was therefore imperative that “the regulation, when complete, meets a balanced taxation and also includes casino games. If you do that, and only allow licensed operators to advertise, it’s not necessary to completely block illegal operators.”