French Operator Pari Mutuel Urbain Releases Trading Update

French betting firm Pari Mutuel Urbain has released its latest trading update, noting large online growth and a slight rise in gross gaming revenue.

Key financial indicators for the nine month period ending September 30th, 2013 were:

• Group GGR up by 0.2% to €1.879 billion, despite a 0.6% decline in stakes amounting to €7.734 billion.

• Land based horse race betting stakes down 1.4% to €7.179 billion and a GGR of €1.83 billion, down 0.1%.

• International horse race betting rose 102% to €449.5 million.

• Retail networks decreased by 5% to €5.962 billion attributed to a challenging economic environment.

• Revenue across the online platform grew 4.3% to total €1.267 billion.

• Online horse race betting declined by 0.7%;

• Online sports betting stakes rose 15.8% to €138.9 million and GGR rose 14.3% to €26.2 million; and

• Online poker stakes grew 10.1% amounting to €415.2 million and GGR rose 22% to €15.7 million despite an overall declining market

• Total gross win from PMU's online activities totaled €207 million, up 2.6%

PMU currently serves as the largest betting site within France, controlling a market share of 44%. It's most dominant sector is the horse betting market, where it receives 83.6% of overall traffic. The group controls 25.6% of France's sportsbetting market, and is currently the third largest online poker firm.