Operators in France escape player account shut downs

Operators in France such as Betclic, Bwin and Unibet will no longer be forced to shut down their player accounts before being granted a licence this year.

The measure to force operators wanting to be licensed in France to close their current French customers' accounts from the time the law is voted until the licences are awarded, which was passed in October 2009, has been revoked by the French Senate, Senator Franocis Trucy, the law's rapporteur for the Senate.

The Senate's finance commission began the final stage of examining the draft law last week with legislators working hard to ensure the text would be approved by the National Assembly in time for the regulation to be voted into law in April and licences granted by the football World Cup in June.

Trucy said: "The issue of the closure of French accounts is not in question [and] operators will be able to carry on working with French players between the law being passed and licences being handed out".

However penalties for sites that continue to operate in France once the regulation is in force will be increased, Trucy continued, and operators will instead have to transfer all their French customers to a .fr site once in possession of their licences.

"All those measures are solid arguments for the government to be able to sell the law to new entrants, who will be looking for assurances that the French regualted market will represent a viable commercial proposition,” he said.

There are likely to be further minor amendments, as "the Senate's finance commission will want to look at the conflicts of interest between different actors involved in the sports business and the regulatory environment," Trucy continued, which will include an amendment by finance commission president Jean Arthuis to set up a single specialist chamber or tribunal with the authority to enforce sanctions.

Trucy also expressed hopes that the French government will oppose a measure aimed at increasing tax on fixed odds sports bets in order to lower the high taxes set for horse racing pari mutuel bets.

France’s Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) signed a sponsorship deal with Federation Francaise De Football, theFrench football federation, as the monopoly operator prepares for the liberalisation of the French market.