Faced with the decline of horse racing bets, the government is launching a reform of the PMU, entrusted to Eric Woerth, to straighten the sector and modernize its governance.
The state comes to the aid of the horse racing sector faced with a drop in betting and advocates a reform, a “PMU 2030 Pact”which intends to change the status and governance of the operator. The PMU, born in 1930, is an economic interest group (GIE) owned by France Galop and the SETF (Company of Encouragement for the Breeding of the French Trotteur) which share net profit (8% of bets) to finance the horse sector and its 40,000 jobs. Players pocket 75% of winning bets while the state receives 9%.
According to the 2024 assessment of the National Games Authority (ANJ), the PMU recorded 6.6 billion euros in puts last year, for 1.7 billion gross product of the games (difference between players and their winnings), down 2% over a year. And the year 2025 is not promised to be better auspices since according to France Galop in June, the bets were down 4% since the start of the year. Wednesday, the government, based on a report by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) which confirms “The downward trend in the stakes of horse racing”announced a “PMU 2030 Pact” one of the most important measures of which will be, to “Renovate governance” And change the status of PMU to make it evolve in commercial GIE.
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This status of commercial GIE, according to some media, would notably make it possible to no longer pay back all of its net profit from mother companies and to constitute reservations. The PMU would have “More strategic autonomy” et “This strengthens the company and its profitability”underlines Bercy to AFP, in June, the departure of Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet, who had led the PMU since July 2022 has been unveiled without any successor being announced. “The challenge is to find a growth dynamic” had then underlined a source in a racing company.
A plan of savings and “return to balance”
The state also asks Mother’s companies on Wednesday, France Galop and the SETF, “Continue saving and sustainable reduction efforts by promoting the pooling of their services more, and identify, in parallel, new outside-Paris revenues”. France Galop announced at the end of May a savings and “Back to balance”: the company will gradually decrease its charges to organize races of 20 million euros by 2029, and above all it will reduce by 20.3 million the «encouragements» (Allowances paid to the sector) from 2026, after a reduction of 10.5 million this year. The PMU General Assembly at the end of June had been a source of biscil between the two companies, the SETF refusing to approve accounts 2024. Professionals in the sector had then published an open letter pushing mother companies to immediately reassure professionals of their good collaboration.
The government appointed Eric Woerth, deputy for the Oise on Wednesday to direct the implementation of the “PMU 2030 Pact”. Its mission will “To formalize a strategic agreement with mother companies by relying on the recommendations of the IGF, to define the content of the PMU 2030 Pact, to propose a reform of the governance of the PMU and to fix the key to distributing between mother companies, and to formalize the mandate of the next PMU management team”. The sector had escaped this year, after a large mobilization, an increase in taxes on horse racing betting at the point of sale. The 2025 finance law also introduced the possibility of betting live on horse racing.
