Mangas chief executive: record winnings on the regulated market
The opening of the French online gaming market has created a positive growth environment for the online sport betting operators, considers Nicolas Béraud the boss of Betclic.
“The taxation levels are too high for a newly opened market” he said. “However, the French market has registered a boom of new clients who have refrained from playing online until now because this activity has been considered illegal according to previous legislation. Now, that this activity was ‘legalised’, record profits have been made in the last few days according to Béraud. Of course, he gives credit to the World Cup for bringing new clients to join Betclic and start betting at this major sport event.
There are still a few problems with how the French market is regulated. First, according to Béraud, is the high level of taxation on the French market that determines clients to search illegal operators which offer cheaper services. “It is still difficult to trace these operators and stop them from activating on the online betting market” he said and gave the example of the Italian market where the measure of blocking the websites lead to unsatisfactory results.
Besides confronting illegal operators and high taxation rates, another issue is that “the new legislation leaves out the online casino games which are very important because they create margin and without them it is difficult to be profitable.” The equilibrium between the taxation and the array of authorised games is a common theme in Béraud’s speech. He predicted that a wave of regulation will continue in other European countries such as Denmark, Germany and Spain and this will ensure Betclic a more stable business environment attracting more and more clients.
Regarding the French market, Béraud hopes that online operators will be allowed to extend their games offer in the next 18 months. He also stated that the French market will remain less profitable during this period due to high taxation rates on e-gaming revenues.
June 22 2010 01:13 am | Casino and Online casino poker and news and online gambling