Unibet Chief Executive Petter Nylander said on Thursday he anticipates returning to France for further questioning on charges that his company has breached France's betting laws.
"In the coming weeks and months there will be more questions from the French," Nylander said in a press conference in London on Thursday, adding the firm had no indication of how long the process would take or whether it would go to court.
Nylander, who was detained in the Netherlands last week after a French judge issued a European warrant for his arrest, was released on 200,000 euros bail in a French court on Wednesday. He has been placed under official investigation for running an illegal lottery, taking illegal bets on horse racing and illegal advertising -- if found guilty, he faces up to three years in jail.
"At first I thought it was a bad joke or a bachelor party or whatever so I was laughing and trying to crack some jokes with the policeman but he didn't really laugh," Nylander said of the arrest. "Then I said, Okay, this is serious and they said you are going to be taken to France and showed me papers that said two or three years in prison and I thought, This like a very bad movie."
The charges stem from a complaint by French lottery monopoly Francaise des Jeux and horserace-betting monopoly Pari Mutuel Urbain alleging Unibet breached nineteenth-century laws protecting state-owned monopolies.
"The laws that are used against me in France are from 1836 and 1891 . . . before the European Union was created, before the Internet was created," Nylander said. "Those national laws are obsolete."
Nylander added that the firm would continue to take bets from French punters in spite of the charges and did not expect to lose customers.
Unibet's legal council Ewout Keuleers told Reuters the firm would "probably" appeal the validity of the investigation.