Time for Le Jackpot or a virtual Vadeni as PMU looks to shake up French betting

Every major racing nation has its own distinct betting and gambling culture, in many cases anchored in a prior golden age when the sport was more central to everyday life.

In France the immediate post-war period featured the creation by then-monopoly operator the Pari Mutuel Urbain of the Tierce (and latterly the Quinte), which bred generations of punters with a love of exotics and a fixation on one major race each day.

This year began in fine fashion for the PMU on the commercial front, with turnover running ahead of budget in the first part of the year and the twin impacts of rising inflation and a heatwave summer failing to slow business down to any meaningful extent.