France grants first online sportsbetting licences

This week saw France officially start the process of implementing new Internet gambling legislation that was passed last year by granting 17 online sportsbetting licences to eleven operators.

Firms that have received permission to offer virtual sportsbetting to France-based punters include Austria's Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG and BetClic Enterprises Limited from Malta while the nation’s Authority For Online Gaming Regulation revealed that Internet poker is set to be authorised later this month with a limited number of licenses.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal newspaper, France began relaxing a state monopoly on gambling that can trace its roots back to the 16th Century on Tuesday and is looking to ‘stabilise tax revenues from online bets’. The new legislation was implemented in time for the start of the 2010 World Cup this weekend and is an attempt to ‘crack down on illegal betting websites while answering European Commission's demands to liberalise national online gambling monopolies’.

However, the newly authorised operators may not find the French market as profitable as many had hoped as the nation is one of the few set to tax the total amount wagered as opposed to the revenues earned. As an example, the total tax on sportsbetting in France will stand at 8.8 percent while it is only 3.8 percent in neighbouring Italy.

The newspaper reported that the relatively high taxes coupled with strict regulations governing what bets can be placed and the presence of former horseracing monopoly Pari Mutual Urbain and national lottery operator Francaise Des Jeux could make generating profits ‘a long-winded process’.

“France is a big market,” said Lorien Pilling, Head Of Research at Isle Of Man-based Global Betting And Gaming Consultants.

“Whether it is profitable is yet to be seen.”