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Par Jake Pollard - 19 janvier 2010

SPS future in doubt as Bouygues takes over

The future of Eurosportbet has been thrown into doubt with news that its parent company Bouygues has taken over the management of SPS Betting, the online gaming firm operating Eurosportbet.

Le Monde newspaper reported yesterday that Bouygues, one of the biggest industrial groups in France, had taken over the management of SPS as a result of major disagreements between key decision makers at the company. Bouygues is also close to an agreement to get SPS to join Francaise des Jeux and Barriere in launching an online poker site for the French market, according to the newspaper.

Disagreements between Patrick Le Lay, former chief executive of TF1, the largest commercial TV channel in France which is part of the Bouygues conglomerate; and Nonce Paolini, his successor at the  channel, lay behind the move by Bouygues. In December, Paolini asked TF1 majority shareholder Martin Bouygues to remove Le Lay from the channel’s board, a request that was agreed to even though Le Lay had only joined the board in June 2009.

TF1 then agreed to buy out investment fund Serendipity’s stake in SPS Betting, one of the SPS backers which is headed up by Le Lay, “as a consolation prize”, according to sources at the TV channel. Although Eurosportbet’s turnover is not significant because it only operates in the UK, it has around 70 employees, with 15 traders based in Paris.

Le Monde speculated that TF1 might in fact be in discussions with potential partners with a view to selling the business or alternatively could simply close it down.

Eurosportbet obtained an Alderney licence in June 2009 and was set up by Le Lay in order to compete with major European operators such as Bwin, Unibet and Betclic. It has been gearing up for a French launch in preparation of the upcoming regulation there later this year.

However, Le Lay recently revealed that Serendipity backers Artemis and Bouygues had found the idea of setting up an online betting company « bizarre ». Both Artemis and Bouygues refused to consider taking over existing operators as they believed them to be illegal in they eyes of the French authorities.

SPS Betting were unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

Catégories : English digest, Non classé

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