French tell betting boss to keep away

A TOP manager of SportingBet, the world's largest web-based betting company, faces arrest if he crosses the Channel for its controversial French launch next week.

Nicolas Bigaignon, Sporting-Bet's marketing director for France, will instead be sitting in his London office tracking the progress of the Paris Prestige site on a computer.

Lawyers in Paris have warned 33-year-old Bigaignon that police will be waiting for him at French airports and Eurostar's Paris terminus. A French justice official said: 'SportingBet knows it will be breaking French law if it opens up here. Betting is a state-run monopoly in France.'

France accuses Aim-listed SportingBet of muscling in on its national lottery. It has an annual turnover close to £4bn, much of which is pocketed by the state.

SportingBet is also taking on the national horse betting monopoly, PMU, which employs 50,000 people and has a slightly larger turnover than the French lottery.

SportingBet, which plans to take its case to the European Court of Justice, continued its expansion last week with the acquisition of online gaming site ParadisePoker.com for an initial £160m.