PMU hit with €900k fine by French regulator

Horse racing operator PMU fined due to failures in its commitment to split online and retail liquidity.

France.- Horse racing giant Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU) has been fined €900,000 by the French Competition Authority after it was found to have failed to maintain its commitment to splitting online and retail liquidity.

In France, online betting has been open to competition since 2010, while PMU enjoys a monopoly on retail betting.

While the betting operator has kept betting pools for each channel separately for domestic racing, it has maintained shared pools for international racing.

Complaints from Betclic Everest Group argued that PMU was flouting the rules, which came into force in 2014, it must adhere to.

PMU offers markets on South African, Irish, American, Norwegian and Swedish racing, but Betclic argued they were being offered with identical odds and prize pools on its website and in retail outlets.

“Therefore, within the framework of these partnerships, PMU is able to offer betting on foreign racing on its website and in its retail network on equally attractive terms,” the Competition Authority explained.

“[This] corresponds directly with the situation for [French] horse race betting, before it committed to [splitting online and offline liquidity] in 2014,” the Authority added.

It also highlighted that the order in 2014 to split online and retail liquidity was “unambiguous”, covering not only domestic events but all racing.

The decision to split the pools was therefore taken to ensure consumers were offered a diversified range of betting options.

“Even if, at this time, foreign racing pools only constitute a small part of PMU’s horse racing betting revenue, the breach is all the more serious since the commitment to split liquidity was a key component of the arrangement to prevent the operator’s PMU.fr site from benefiting from its retail monopoly,” the Authority added.

As well as imposing the fine and forcing the operator to split its online and retail pools, French courts have also order PMU to pay Betclic Everest an unspecified sum in compensation for anti-competitive practices.