BWin Executives Arrested in France

The French national lottery made a strong statement this week, after two BWin executives were arrested and detained by French police on Friday.

Manfred Bodner and Norbert Teufelberger were preparing for a press conference announcing a sponsorship deal with AS Monaco Football Club when at least ten French police officers arrested the pair in front of shocked sports journalists, who were given quite the news story to write about after viewing the shock arrests.

Better times for BWin were expected with the announcement of the sponsorship deal with the AS Monaco Football Club, but those hopes were smashed with the unexpected arrests of the BWin executives. Bodner and Teufelberger "were detained for questioning by French authorities because of alleged violation of French gaming laws," BWin announced in a statement following the arrests.

The arrests in France follow similar arrests in the US of David Carruthers (former BetonSports exec) and Peter Dicks (former SportingBet chairman). Bodner and Teufelberger may be charged for allegedly violating French laws which protect Francaise des Jeux (FdJ), which conducts the national lottery, and the PMU, which conducts bets for horse races. PMU and FdJ hold on a monopoly on legal online wagers in France.

The FdJ came out firing following the arrests. A spokeswoman for FdJ said: ""It is reasonable to assume that any other executive from an online bookmaker who came to France would also be arrested. We are doing exactly the same as the authorities in the US who arrested the British executives."

The spokeswoman claimed that lawsuits had been filed against all online gaming companies "seeking custom in France through publicity." This is an ominous announcement for Casino-on-Net (888) executives as 888.com sponsors the Toulouse Football Club, which plays in the French Ligue 1. This warning was followed by an announcement from 888.com Chief Executive John Anderson that he would be stepping down at the end of the year.

Shares in major online gaming companies slumped following the arrests and the subsequent FdJ statement. The market has been rocked following each of the recent arrests, and stabilized each time, only to be rocked again with news of another arrest. One wonders how much more of this the industry can take and how long it will be before the European Union wades into the debate over the right of European member states to protect their own online gambling monopolies.

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