France’s online betting volumes grow, yet operators face losses

Though the French online betting market grew in 2015, profits did not increase accordingly.

France.- The French igaming regulator ARJEL released last year’s figures. Betting stakes reached €1.44b (US$1.57b) an increase of 30 percent in 2015. The stakes placed during 2015’s fourth quarter broke all previous records reaching €452m (US$492.75) the highest volume since the market was regulated back in 2010. The number of weekly active punters rose to 200,000, an increase of 8 percent.

The reason why the results of this growth did not reflect on betting operators’ profits, was most likely the taxes based on stakes, as the level of taxation works out at 46 percent of gross profits and net profits for online betting. In addition, the amount operators allocate to pay for their running costs only rose 6 percent in 2015. So even though gross profits were up 19 percent for betting operators reaching €270m (US$294.34m,) they may face losses according to 2015’s figures.