ANJ removes 179 competitions from sports betting list

The French regulator has re-evaluated its list of eligible sports bets.

France.- The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has elected to re-evaluate its list of eligible sports bets and removed 179 competitions. This new update was decided in December and will be effective from March 1, 2024. 

Since 2010, sports bettors in France have only been able to make specific bets on certain sports, though since this time the sports list has been routinely updated; having “lost its readability and consistency,” according to the ANJ.

This new update aims to prevent manipulation of the market through the prohibiting of bets “that do not rely on the know-how and sporting knowledge of the bettors.” It also aims to limit betting on certain competitions. In the updated list, 179 competitions have been removed. In total, the list now consists of 772 competitions.  

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“Certain sporting events have been delisted, either because they no longer exist, or because they no longer meet the legal criteria for listing because they appear to lack importance or notoriety, or because they may encourage manipulation. This is the case of the Tunisian first-category football championship,” explained the French regulator in its statement.

Additionally, while new wording has been created to better articulate the limitations on the types of results punters can bet on, the number of bets that can be placed has not decreased. Instead, these bets have been placed into broader categorisation.  

Certain limitations and caps in tennis and basketball betting have also been removed, with one example being the lifting of restrictions around “player(s) who score(s) 20 points or more” result types from basketball.