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According to Gambling regulator of France “L’Autorite de regulation des jeux en ligne” (ARJEL) the online gaming market revenue grew 18.1% to €1.42bn in 2019. This happened mainly thanks to a 27.3% increase in sports betting revenue, which made the majority of the total iGaming income (€880m) despite the lack of a major international football tournament and compared to 2018 which was a year that included the FIFA World Cup finals.
This figure came on a record €5.06bn worth of stakes on sports bets, up 30% year-on-year. Almost all of these stakes came on fixed-odds bets, with €14m staked on pool bets. There was a total of €3.4m active sports betting accounts in France in 2019, up 6.7% year-on-year.
Other markets grew as well, like for example horse racing (5.9% to €271m with stakes growing 5.4% to €1.11bn a record since 2012) and online poker (5.4% to €272m from 1.2m active poker players in the country). Football remains the most popular sport for punters, while basketball (mainly the NBA) follows.
Over the year, operators paid gambling taxes of €701m, with the majority coming from sportsbook licensees. Sports betting accounted for €470m of the total, followed by €145m from horse racing, and €86m from poker.
