French Racing ends fractious tenure of PMU CEO

The move is not surprising as French horseracing institution SETF has opposed to Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) boss Malecaze-Doublet leadership for some time….

Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet is set to leave her role as CEO of PMU, in September following the ongoing deterioration of her relations with the trotting trade group SETF (commonly known as LeTrot), one of the two bodies that supervises the French horse racing tote operator. She will join Galileo Global Education, a leading supplier of private education services, as new CEO.

Malecaze-Doublet ends her three-year tenure as CEO of PMU, during which she was tasked by French racing stakeholders with revitalising the operator’s racebook portfolio and re-establishing its public presence in France.

The move by Malecaze-Doublet does not come as a major surprise following a prolonged period of hostile briefing by SETF, but the situation is complicated by ongoing tensions between SETF and France Galop, PMU’s other institutional stakeholder, which was supportive of Malecaze-Doublet. The two groups hold 95% of the voting rights in the pari mutuel operator.

The news comes as PMU reported a 2% drop in GGR to €1.7bn in 2024, although player numbers were up 6% to 3.5 million, the first time they have reached levels last seen in 2019. From a strategic angle, the group has launched a tender to assess new online sports betting providers. It has been offering fixed odds sports betting via an agreement with OpenBet and managed by Paddy Power B2B since 2010.

At the races

PMU’s numbers include its land-based and online wagering activities, but figures from the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) activity report revealed that for French online horse racing as a whole (i.e. PMU’s online figures and those of digital competitors such as ZEturf/FDJ or Betclic), stakes were up 3.6% to €1.5bn in 2024 and GGR rose 1,5% to €339m.

ANJ’s data also pointed to operators’ marketing campaigns being successful with younger players and women: the fastest growing age category was 18-25-year olds at +6,2% in 2024, with the number of 55-year olds and above also up 5,2%.

ANJ said: “The growth in the 18-25 age group suggests operators’ marketing is bearing fruit, particularly among male punters (+7% growth compared with +1.7% for female punters in the same age group). The growth in the number of female punters between 2023 and 2024 is slightly higher than that of the number of male punters: (+4% compared with +2.6%), a trend driven by the 55+ age group.”

Referring to PMU, ANJ pointed out that stakes in its physical outlets were down in each quarter of 2024, while online was more varied but generally positive, due in part to cross-selling from OSB and a retail network that is mature and five times the size of its online counterpart.

Bad Blood

Having joined in 2022 from the consulting firm McKinsey, Malecaze-Doublet was tasked with reinvigorating PMU, which suffered badly from the pandemic and has been seeking to rejuvenate an ageing client base and modernise its offering with a renewed focus on digital activities.

However, her tenure has been marked by stasis and ongoing disagreements between her teams and SETF, which have erupted into the open in the past few months. At the end of 2024, SETF Chairman Jean-Pierre Barjon expressed doubts about PMU’s performance and in his New Year address, he called for a radical overhaul of its strategic aims and direction.

In April, SETF refused to sign off PMU’s 2024 accounts, citing doubts about the figures and commenting on the group’s governance. Officially it said it wasn’t aiming to replace Malecaze-Doublet, but industry sources were clear that was SETF’s intent. A report by France’s General Inspectorate of Finances (IGF) is due this summer.