Online Betting: Unibet boss speaks against French gambling monopoly

The boss of the online betting company Unibet, Petter Nylander, speaks out for an end of the French gambling monopoly.

Online Betting: Unibet boss speaks against French gambling monopoly The chief executive of the online betting company Unibet, Petter Nylander, was arrested 10 days ago in Amsterdam and put under investigation, following a complaint from the French (state-owned) gambling monopolies Francaise des Jeux and PMU, that Unibet is breaching French law. Nylander is currently on bail and spoke out from his residence in London, slaming the French gambling monopolies and calling for an end to the closed market.

"You can take the airline industry, the broadcast industry, telecom sector, to the benefit of the European consumers. This is just another monopoly going down, painfully. However, I'm not aware of a monopoly going down throwing competitors into prison. We need to stop this harrassment of companies. We need to create a modern form of a gaming industry, to find a way for responsible companies like Unibet and others to work and be non discriminated compared to state companies in Europe," Petter Nylander bashed the gambling monopoly in France.

Unibet is one of the largest online betting companies, registered in Malta and operating from the U.K., the company is also listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. This is not the first time the French government is bullying online gambling executives and although the European Commission has criticized the French on several occasions for their protective gambling laws, nothing has been done yet by the E.U. to bring real results.

Published on 11/02/2007