Isabelle Parize, vice chairwoman, Mangas Gaming
Mangas Gaming's vice chairwoman Isabelle Parize talks France, new markets and the push for an EU-wide regulatory framework for egaming.
EGR: Mangas continues to invest heavily in costly marketing with long-term ROI such as football sponsorships. Does being privately backed lend you an advantage here?
Isabelle Parize (IP): Being listed is difficult and to have private shareholders is key to our strategy of gaining market share. To be listed today would probably be detrimental to our ability to do this and to our growth.
EGR: Do you agree that only the very biggest will be left standing in France in 18 months?
IP: The issue in France is not just the marketing spend required, it is the taxation, it is unbearable. We knew from the beginning that there was no way we could make money in France. It takes huge investment, and a lot of companies will collapse over the next 18 months.
EGR: So which operators will make the cut?
IP: PMU, FDJ, Bwin for sure, PokerStars and us. Maybe two or three others in poker, as the conditions are not exactly the same as for betting.
EGR: Given this view of France, what did you make of Bwin’s Norbert Teufelberger’s recent comment that he expects his company to make a profit from the market by 2011?
IP: I congratulate him. I’m very surprised, but fine. For me, it is impossible on betting to make a profit. I don’t know how he does, but”¦
EGR: You mentioned at this year’s Power 50 event that you were looking to enter the US market with Everest Poker. Is this still on the agenda?
IP: Yes, because it looks to be poker before anything else. However, three weeks ago we had a lot of hopes the market could regulate by the end of this year, but our last information contradicts this. But we think the market will open in some way by 2012 or 2013.
EGR: Would you consider a move into B2B like several of your competitors?
IP: We will look at opportunities but we are mainly a B2C operator.
EGR: Would the US be one such opportunity?
IP: The US is a different story. Let’s see how the US opens up, but we would most probably need to be a white label.
EGR: Given local licensing looks to be the norm in Europe now, do you think the industry needs to lobby for more realistic targets, such as the mutual recognition of technical standards between regulators?
IP: The industry needs to get behind Michel Barnier’s Green Paper proposing pan-European regulation, on the agenda for discussion in early November at the European Commission.
I don’t know if you have seen the new proposal from Greece, with a 5m fee upfront just to have a licence, plus tremendous taxation on stakes, 15%. Unbelievable. Poland, meanwhile, is looking to stop everything except betting and also proposing high taxation.
You find a different approach everywhere, which is not good for our business. We simply cannot manage this. The industry needs this Green Paper.
EGR: How is the complicated player registration process in France affecting business?
IP: The good news is that because of the World Cup, the customers went through the process because they wanted to play. But long term, it is preventing customers from registering.
EGR: What are the next markets for Mangas?
IP: We are planning to launch Everest in Italy. We want to have licences in countries that are offering them, so most probably we will go for Denmark. Greece is moving very quickly, so we are considering Greece as well.