Sportingbet confirms retreat from France
Sportingbet has confirmed it will not be re-entering France in the forseeable future, closing its office there and cancelling its B2B agreements with Le Monde and L'Express.
Sportingbet will not be re-entering the French market in 2011 as planned, confirming to eGR that it has shut down its office there and cancelled its B2B agreements with newspapers Le Monde and L‘Express.
Finance director Jim Wilkinson told eGR: “We are still adapting our IT to fit in with the regulations, and this will take a period of months. So we have shut down our French office in the meantime while we continue to assess the economic viability of the market.”
Wilkinson said the cost of closing the French office last month, which employed four people, and cancelling the agreements with Le Monde and L’Express had been “minimal, almost nothing.”
He explained: “There was no IT investment done, all we had done was sign the contracts, and were waiting for the regulations to be up and running before going any further.”
Sportingbet’s finance director however emphasised the operator had not ruled out a return to France at a later date, based on continual assessment of the economic viability of the market.
The operator was now just a “few months away” from achieving IT compliance with the required standards of French regulator ARJEL, he added.
Prior to the re-regulation of the market from June this year, France accounted for approximately 4% of Sportingbet’s total revenue.