France Galop to implement staff cuts, Partouche president comments clarified
France Galop, French casinos, Results: Codere, GIG, Gentoo Media, Kalshi-Polymarket, Dutch stakeholders united &Co
Hello, on Gaming&Co today:
France Galop to implement staff cuts as casino contacts clarify Partouche president comments
Results round: Codere Online, GIG, Gentoo Media
Everything is gambling with Kalshi and Polymarket
Dutch stakeholders united in call to not raise taxes
Player limited by Loto-Québec to redirect at unregulated sites
NIBS: Betclic, Hippos ATG, Betnation
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France Galop prepares to tighten its belt
The institution will reduce its payroll to meet the current challenges facing PMU
Lighten the load: France Galop, one of PMU’s two institutional stakeholders, is set to carry out a wave of redundancies to lighten its wage bill, reports Les Echos. PMU is struggling to regenerate its player base with younger customers and with revenues down, the large majority of which go towards financing France Galop and PMU’s other stakeholder Le Trot, the group is understood to have met with staff on Monday to outline how it will establish up a programme of voluntary redundancies in the coming weeks.
The scale of the layoffs is unclear, but it is likely to impact quite a few employees. France Galop employs around 400 people. The news is not surprising, PMU has been struggling commercially for some time and also gone through a series of disagreements that saw Le Trop (aka SETF) in particular strongly criticise the group’s senior management teams, while FG supported them.
Paris-Turf is also reporting that PMU’s board has pushed back its meeting planned for this week to early December, where it will discuss issues such as whether it should increase its pay out ratio to provide between prices to punters, the size of its marketing budgets and how it can get Le Trot to agree to approve the company accounts.
Meanwhile, PMU has started its restructure with new partnerships to revamp its PAM and sports betting offering, but it is yet to appoint a new CEO-chairman/woman team despite knowing since May that its CEO and chairman would be leaving. On that front, Mathieu Drida, Unibet MD and one of the favourites for the CEO role, is understood to have turned down PMU’s approach.
Industry contacts clarify Partouche comments
Many other gambling topics need to be addressed first, explain industry contacts
Setting priorities: Sources close to Casinos de France and Groupe Partouche have clarified comments by the group’s president Patrick Partouche reported on this website last week, telling Gaming&Co that what he meant when he said the issue of land-based casinos’ viability was “a red herring” whenever France discussed iCasino regulation was that there are many other important topics that should be addressed first.
Partouche said French casinos were too often “used as a red flag (herring)”, but what he meant was that “the country should address many other gambling-related issues first before it considers iCasino regulation”, explained one industry source. They added that difficult themes like minors or anonymous play throughout the retail outlets of Française des Jeux were eventually addressed, while PMU is currently doing the same regarding excluded players who in the past have been able to access its products.
Scratch and find: “The same goes for illegal operators,” added the contact. “While the arrests of the Cresus Casino executives are welcome, there are many other illegal operators targeting the French market. As Patrick said, once you scratch the surface, it’s easy to work out who they are.”
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Results roundup
Mexican doubts for Codere
Codere Online has expressed doubt about its activities in Mexico following a proposed tax rise from 30% to 50% as part of the government’s 2026 budget. The central American country is the group’s largest market with revenues of nearly €27m in Q3, ahead of Spain at €22m. The group has also pulled back from Colombia following a temporaryVAT rise. Net revenues were flat YoY at €51.6m and adj. EBITDA doubled to €2.9m. FY25 NGR guidance was €220m-€230m with adj. EBITDA at €10m-€15m.
GIG restructure continues
Three client launches, an increased rollout of AI, disciplined costs management and a reduction of its workforce helped GIG deliver 31% growth in Q3 with revenue reaching €9.5m and EBITDA rising €2.3m to €1.2m, reversing a loss of €1.1m in 2023. CEO Richard Carter said the group would also be launching its first lottery client in mid-2026, “a significant catalyst in terms of our pipeline,” he said.
This will enable it to join lottery bodies such as the World Lottery Association. “Once you get the first one, that then enables you to hopefully upsell into other lottery partners,” added Carter.
GIG added that it had just signed a European operator to provide its platform and sportsbook services in the French market.
Gentoo down
Gentoo Media revenues were down 3% YoY to nearly €23m and adj. EBITDA dropped 32% to €9.3m in Q3 due to uncertain working conditions in Brazil. Paid media dropped 28% to €4.3m and publishing was down 22% to €18.4m. The group also said it had misreported 2024 figures following auditing errors but that there was “no impact on cash”. FY25 guidance was maintained at €100m-€105m and EBITDA at €40m-€43m.
Everything is gambling with Kalshi and Polymarket - literally
The rise of prediction markets is in step with the US political climate
Meteoric rise: The rise of prediction markets (PM) in the past 12-18 months is a striking development for a vertical no one had really heard of until the 2024 US presidential elections. Providing customers with opportunities to bet on anything, from the US elections to the speed of hurricane winds or whether wildfires will reach certain suburbs of Los Angeles, brands like Kashi and Polymarket have forged ahead and will soon be joined by the likes of FanDuel Predicts and DraftKings Predictions.
For the likes of Kalshi and Polymarket the obvious next move was always going to be sports markets. This is not surprising when looking at their user demographics and popularity of the NFL or NBA. In addition, and in contrast to online sportsbooks, they are regulated at federal level and can operate across all US jurisdictions, including in Texas, California and Florida, where sports betting is still not regulated.
Plain as day: The rise of prediction markets also points to a banalisation (as the French would say) of betting, something the regulators in both France and the UK have also flagged in different updates and reports, and Business Insider’s headline seems very appropriate.
The people quoted in the piece also state an obvious truism. For example, Jordan Bender of the investment firm Citizens said: “The vast majority of people that I deal with in this industry look at this and say, ‘This is gambling, it’s insane that we’re having this conversation’.” The same could also be said about fantasy betting or France’s web 3 JONUM products.
The US sports betting leaders’ plans to move into the prediction space has also caused ructions with the American Gaming Association, with AGA members’ opposition to PMs causing FandDuel and DraftKings to leave the trade group.
The Business Insider article goes on to say that the rise of sports betting in the US could lead to an environment where customers will bet on sports, but also buy and sell crypto currencies and trade shares. They might also want to purchase concert tickets or NFL merch. Still, nothing is certain and NFTs were also once thought of as the breakthrough product that were about to turn betting websites into true mainstream, digital destinations.
Political support
It’s worth noting however that Kalshi and Polymarket’s rise has taken place within a specific political setting. Indeed as I wrote shortly after the US elections, they seemed to emerge out of nowhere, although as a journalist covering the space, it was striking to open X/Twitter most mornings before the elections and see both brands at the top of the feed and showing Donald Trump as overwhelming favourite.
With X owner Elon Musk backing Trump to the tune of $250m, there are few guesses for imagining how much (or little) exposure they would have received had Kamala Harris emerged as the favourite for the presidency.
Time is now: PM operators are also making hay while they can. Donald Trump’s removal of Federal Trade and Commission chair Lina Khan was expected as she had shown clear intent to regulate the product and, with appointments such as Donald Trump Jr as strategic advisor to Kalshi, prediction brands are pressing home their advantage while they can.
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Dutch stakeholders call on government to not implement tax rise
Industry call could be successful as GGR tax set to reach nearly 38% in 2026
Freeze! Gambling stakeholders have called on the Netherlands’ newly-assembled House of Representatives to freeze the gambling tax rise that is due to come into force in January. The country’s lawmakers raised the tax at the start of the year from 30.5% to 34.2% and it is due to reach 37.8% from January 2026.
Everyone on the same hymn sheet: Speaking to Casinonieuws, Arjan Blok, CEO of Nederlands Loterij, added that the timing of the request was also unique in that “everyone involved in the gambling market shares the same opinion: that a further increase in gambling tax is simply a very bad idea”. The online gaming trade body VNLOK, the gaming suppliers represented by VAN Kansspelen, Nederlandse Loterij and Holland Casino all back the call.
Will it work? Gambling industry calls for lower taxes are rarely heeded, but Frank Op de Woerd, Editor-in-chief of Casinonieuws, says they might succeed this time. “D66 is the biggest party following the recent elections and has voiced the same request and the two government-owned entities also support the call”.
The move is also supported by the Dutch Court of Audit, which noted that a lack of monitoring of the tax measures meant their impact was not being properly assessed. It also follows confirmation by the regulator KSA that the 2025 tax increase not only pushed more players towards unregulated sites, it also did not lead to increased tax revenues for the country.
Loto-Quebec bans winning player…
… who says he will consider opening account on widely-available private operator brands
Obey: Québec’s monopoly operator Loto-Québec has been accused of encouraging players from the province to go on unregulated sites by imposing strict betting limits on its website ‘Mise-o-jeu’. Local media reported last week that one player had been limited to bets of CA$ 93 cents after winning around CA$20,000 so far this year on what is, technically, the only website allowed to operate in the province.
In it for the money: “I just want to live my dream of earning extra income through sports betting. Right now, the knowledge I’ve developed is useless because I can no longer bet legally,” William Nadeau told Journal de Québec.
Focusing on micro-bets of $100-$150 on player props, he was imposed a betting limit of just $40 in September and was also unable to bet more than CA$ 93 cents on any event as of last week. Loto-Québec did not comment on Nadeau’s case other than to say that limiting stakes was “part of its risk management measures”.
As a result, Nadeau is now thinking of opening an account with one of the many unregulated and easily-accessible private operators that take bets from Québec residents. Ontario currently is the only regulated province for online gambling and betting in Canada, although Alberta is set to pass iGaming regulations early next year.
In Dec 2023 the Coalition québécoise du jeu en ligne (CQJL), the trade group of commercial operators advocating regulation of the sector in Québec, claimed that 730 of out of 1,000 respondents were betting on private/commercial sites and were in favour of regulating the sector through a “licensing and tax regime”.
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News shorts
Betclic has named Mathieu Moura as its new Director for human resources. He will be tasked with driving the company’s HR strategy and ensuring its tech focus and performance and enterprise culture permeates throughout the group. Betclic has also recruited Louise Ragot as its new Deputy director for communications, where she will work alongside the group’s Head of public affairs Alexandre Tuaillon.
Jussi Nurmi has joined the Finnish horse racing OSB and casino operator Hippos ATG as its new COO. The company is set to launch in Finland in 2027, when the country is due to launch its regulated market. Nurmi has 10 years of experience in iGaming and will work alongside CEO Mikael Bäcke. Hippos ATG is joint venture co-owned by Suomen Hippos ry (50%) and AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) (50%), with profits distributed 60% (Suomen Hippos) and 40% (ATG).
Betnation has now relaunched its online sportsbook with Kambi following the withdrawal from the Dutch market of its previous provider Metric Gaming in September due to financial difficulties.
Calendar
Events: Global Regulatory Awards, Nov 19, EGR Italy Briefing & Awards, Nov 21, BEGE 2025 (Balkan Entertainment and Gaming Expo), Nov 26/27. EGR Latam Summit, Nov 27, SiGMA South Asia, Nov 30–Dec 2
Contact
Get in touch with Jake Pollard to find out more about Gaming&Co: jake@gamingandco.info
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