Industry leaders split over Euro future, EGR Live reveals
Europe's top egaming operators are split over whether major EU economies will regulate online gaming, yesterday's EGR Live event in London revealed.
EUROPE’S TOP EGAMING OPERATORS ARE split over whether major EU economies will regulate online gaming, the EGR Live event in London has revealed.
Speaking at the egaming conference and exhibition’s packed CEO Panel session yesterday, Bwin co-chief executive Manfred Bodner, Ladbrokes egaming head Ed Andrewes and Unibet chief executive Petter Nylander all expressed optimism that European countries will opt for open, regulated egaming regulation such as that adopted in the UK and Italy.
This was in stark contrast to the views of Betfair managing director Mark Davies and Nicolas Beraud, chief executive of Bet Click and chief operating officer of France’s Mangas Gaming, which owns Betclick, Bet-at-home and Expekt.
Andrewes said: “The UK shows a mainstream model and I think Italy will also show other countries how to regulate sensibly. Gambling has already become much more of a mainstream activity, and people increasingly quote odds on sports events and even news because it shows the likelihood of something happening.”
Unibet’s Petter Nylander agreed, and said: “The mass market will be a challenging environment for everyone but it has evolved: Italy has shown the way.”
Bwin co-chief executive Manfred Bodner said: “This is all about money as we know, and the Italians have proved that you can make a hell of a lot more money for the state through taxes than you can on state monopolies. If France had paid more attention to Italy, its new system would be a better one, but I believe it will change in time.”
However Mangas’ Nicolas Beraud said that the draft French laws would make operating in France impossible “ and that lobbying efforts to lower tax rates and allow more competition with France’s Francais Des Jeux (FDJ) and Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) monopolies remained difficult.
Beraud said: “The situation in France is not a good one. If ones looks at the draft regulation, the tax is just huge and it will be impossible to make money. At Mangas Gaming we are trying to explain that present policies are only to protect monopolies, but to do lobbying in France is very hard – the monopolies are very strong.”
Betfair managing director Mark Davies agreed: “We have been talking to [French regulators] for a long time and it has made sod all difference, if I’m frank. This is because it is not a rational debate that is being held.
“If I were a French politician, and deeply entrenched families are telling me that if I back a group of upstarts from another country it will go horribly wrong and it will be my head on the chopping block in a year’s time, and I also have a group of overseas upstarts telling me that not backing them means it will also go horribly wrong, but only in 15 to 20 years time when I’m long retired, I know what I would do. So I have some sympathy for the politicians – although that is not to say that I think they have come out with sensible policies in any way, shape or form.”
Bwin, BetClick, Betfair and Unibet are among last night’s EGR Awards Winners. EGR Live continues today.