Online gambling sets record in France in 2018
An increase of online players and the World Cup helped France achieve impressive results in 2018.
France.- The Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL), France’s gambling authority, has revealed that in 2018 the local online gambling industry saw a record in number of players, as it grew 40% to 2.7 million.
The regulator said that the World Cup, which took place in June-July 2018, drove the impressive results: “Online gambling has progressed in 2018 under the effect of the increase in the number of players and the sports calendar marked by FIFA’s World Cup,” said ARJEL.
The number of players that engaged in sports betting activities posted a significant growth in 2018, as it rose from 1.3 million in 2017 to 2.2 million in 2018, which represents a 61% increase. Bets totalled €3.9 billion, representing a 56% rise and the highest annual increase since the opening of the market in 2010.
Moreover, ARJEL revealed that nearly €382 million were wagered on the 64 games of the World Cup and that the new players that were recruited during the competition continued their practice after the tournament ended.
Horse betting also achieved record results for the second year in a row and reached €1.04 billion, “the highest amount recorded over the last five years,” says the authority. The number of online horse betting players is up by 12% to 511k. Online poker experienced an 8% growth in players and sums paid by players to participate in poker tournaments increased by 11% in 2018, reaching €2.3 billion.
