ANJ to closely monitor French operators’ promotions
The French regulator has cautioned betting firms to moderate their marketing activities in light of an active sporting year, particularly focusing on Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympics.
France.- The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), the French regulator, required operators to submit their annual promotional strategies for approval, ensuring compliance with state gambling policies, including the prevention of problem gambling and protection of minors.
In the 2024 assessment, the ANJ noted that many sportsbooks plan to “continue the strategy implemented in 2023”. This approach is characterized by a “desire to retain players, in a context of strong sporting activity around the Euro and the Olympics“. This latter element was the main area of focus for the ANJ.
The Olympics in the French capital will be preceded by the football European Championships in Germany, where France will be among the favourites having reached the 2022 World Cup final.
The ANJ said operators should “significantly moderate their promotional strategy in order not to exert excessive advertising pressure on all the different existing media supports, particularly during the period of Euro 2024 and that of the Paris Olympic Games.”
The ANJ called for companies to “ensure, on the one hand, that financial rewards intended to recruit or retain players remain moderate and understandable to the public and, on the other hand, not to offer these rewards to players that it identifies as potentially excessive or pathological.”
See also: ANJ estimates unlicensed French gambling market worth up to €1.5bn
In total, the ANJ analyzed the promotional strategies of 16 approved online operators and two operators – La Française Des Jeux and Pari Mutuel Urbain – under exclusive rights. The regulator did partially reject WINAMAX’s promotional strategy about bonuses and financial rewards.
The promotional budgets of French-licensed online sports betting and gaming operators will increase by 14 per cent on an annual basis and reach €670m in 2024, with 30 per cent of that figure to be spent between May and July to coincide with the UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament and the Olympic Games in Paris.
The figures, published by the ANJ following its analysis of operators’ advertising strategies for 2024, also revealed that 59 per cent of the operators’ marketing budgets will focus on bonuses and free bets to encourage player signups.
