Ligue 1: French authorities point the finger at partnerships with financial trading platforms

Partnerships between five Ligue 1 clubs and Forex trading or binary options platforms were singled out at a joint press conference of the AMF, the prosecution arm of the Tribunal de Grande Instance (French high court) in Paris, the French competition authority and the French financial control authority, in Paris (FRA) on 31/03/2016.

Illegal sites which allow online Forex and binary options trading (360 registered by the AMF in 2016) and fraudulent scams regarding transfer orders, generated €4.5bn in losses since 2010 for French customers, stated François Molins, the prosecutor of Paris. According to a study by the AMF, legal sites (authorised in Cyprus) have generated €175m in losses between 2010 and 2014 for French customers, against €13m of gains (making nine out of 10 customers financial losers on approved sites, and 10 of 10 on unauthorized platforms).

In 2015-16, Paris Saint-Germain (OptionWeb), Olympique Lyonnais (24Option.com), AS Monaco (EZ Trader), AS Saint-Étienne (Investing Area) and OGC Nice (InteractiveOption .com) have partnered with platforms for binary options or…