How can we prevent PMU, urban mutual bets, the horsepower pillar, be definitely distanced? Anchored in the territory for almost a century, the PMU is currently going through one of the worst crises in its history. Therefore, the government has decided to take reins announcing a recovery plan on Wednesday that the sector can perceive as a horsepower remedy …
In fact, it is about launching a reform of the horsepower that includes “a structural savings plan” and a renewal of the PMP governance to “develop its status.” It is Eric Woerth, deputy of the Oise, who is in charge of writing a “PACT PMU 2030”.
Born in 1930, the PMU is a group of economic interest (GIE) owned by France Galop and the SETF (Breath Company for French Trotteur Breeding) that share net profits (8% of bets) to finance the horsepower sector and its 40,000 jobs. Bolsan players 75% of the profits in form, while the State receives 9%. The Ministry of Agriculture and Bercy exercise guardianship in the PMU.
The PMU supplanted by online bets
Horse -based bets no longer attract so much and discipline is now relegated by much more popular online sports betting among young people, despite the efforts of the sector to attract a less old audience (online development, modernization of points of sale, communication campaigns …).
And the figures are final. According to the 2024 evaluation of the National Game Authority (ANJ), the PMU registered 6,600 million euros in last year (3.5 million players), for 1.7 billion gross products of the games (difference between players of the players and their profits), 2% lower for a year. It is even 4% less compared to the initial objectives. Worse, this trend is confirmed, according to France Galop, bets have dropped 4% since the beginning of the year.
Above all, with a market share of 12% in 2024, the PMU was first supplanted by the online sports commitment. A downward trend confirmed by the conclusions of a report of the General Finance Inspection of June 2025 requested by the Government. This document evokes “the risk that the downward trend in the bets of the horse races will continue sustainably.”
Drifts and intestine struggles
The PMU is also crossed by internal dissensions, it is never seen since its creation. Last April, the 2024 accounts were rejected, the first, which led to an open crisis among the actors in the sector that mentioned “a harmful situation.” The group was also found in March in the heart of a journalistic investigation that describes the derivations, with a system to maximize yields, which had won its leader a citation to the Ministry of National Education.
More recently, Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet, who has directed the PMU since July 2022, after the revocation of his predecessor Cyril Linette for Fault, announced his departure for the end of summer. Within the PMU, no successor has been announced at this time at this time that an interim manager can name before finding the rare pearl, according to a source. An instability that does not help.
What does the government want to do?
France Galop, one of the houses of the wife of the PMU, launched a savings plan last May to “gradually reduce its 20 million career charges by 2029”, and reduce the “encourages” (assignments paid to the sector) of 20.3 million since 2026, after a reduction of 10.5 million this year. The measures consider insufficient by the Government, which, therefore, wants a deep reform. In a press release, the Ministry of Agriculture requires “a strong inflection of the PMU strategy and the governance of the sector.”
As ? When initiating “a proactive investment plan to stabilize the decrease in income and create the conditions for a medium -term rebound. This strategy implies initiating a structural savings plan in the sector. In particular, mother companies must pursue savings efforts and sustainable reduction in charges through promotion more than the grouping of their services, and in parallels, the new income without Paris”.
Taxes could gallop
This ambition is likely to make the teeth contain since “it implies renewing the governance of the PMU and, in particular, developing its state towards that of a commercial GIE, to align all interested parties around a development strategy.” However, this change of state had been dismissed at the beginning. This state of GIE commercial, according to some media, would make it possible for no longer to pay all its net profits of the mother companies and constitute reservations. The PMU would have “more strategic autonomy” and “this strengthens the company and its profitability,” says Bercy to AFP.
Another measure that could return as a galloping horse, the tax project. In fact, the sector had escaped this year after a wide mobilization of an increase in taxes on horse racing bets at the point of sale (from 6.9 to 7.5%) and online (from 6.9 to 15%) qualified as “Mortor”. At the end of 2024, Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said: “I hope that owners, all those who make life in the horse of our country, could protect themselves from taxes that would prevent them from working.” But given the chronic difficulties of the PMU and the fiscal situation of France, a reversal in this issue is far from being impossible.
Source: BFM TV
