Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) has announced the appointment of Cyrille Giraudat as its new CEO, with effect from the start of January 2026.
Giraudat will replace Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet, who stepped down in September after serving in the role for almost three years. Christophe Curt had worked as interim CEO for the past few months.
Giraudat joins PMU after he most recently served as the director of marketing, customer and digital at real estate group Nexity. Prior to this, he worked as director of digital, marketing and innovation at RATP Dev and was customer director of the Europcar Group.
Incidentally, this will be Giraudat’s second spell at PMU. He previously worked for the horse racing betting operator between 2004 and 2014, serving as marketing, customer and digital director of the business.
His appointment as CEO was approved by several government ministries. These included the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Food Sovereignty and the Ministry of Public Action and Accounts.
“Giraudat’s priorities will focus on accelerating the development and transformation of PMU and strengthening customer satisfaction within a sustainable and responsible gaming framework,” PMU said.
French online casino legalisation debate rumbles on
PMU remains primarily focused on wagering on horse racing, with a monopoly on off-track horse racing bets. However, in recent years, it has expanded its offering and now also runs online sports betting and poker options.
This effectively maxes out its online offering in France, with online casino gaming having not yet been approved. However, this has not been for the lack of trying, with several industry stakeholders having called for reform in France.
Online gambling association AFJEL recently said the country is losing as much as €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) to illegal online casino operators. As such, it has called on the government to legalise online casinos to create a regulated market and allow the country to generate tax from the medium.
However, Casinos de France, the primary trade association representing land-based casinos in the country, hit out at the plans. It said the touted lost revenue by AFJEL “does not exist” and legalising online casinos would in fact wipe over €500 million from public financing.
Casinos de France said a legal iGaming market would cause “massive” job losses, lead to the closure of dozens of businesses and reduce resources for local authorities in France. It also warned of weakened social and economic ties.
Should the French government elect to legalise online casinos, this would open an additional option to PMU. However, PMU has not yet made any indication as to whether it would consider expanding into this segment.
Cyrille Giraudat will replace Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet, who exited as CEO in September.