Online sports betting in France saw significant growth in 2025, with a rise in stakes and gross gaming revenue (GGR) despite a sporting calendar that lacked major events, according to the French gambling regulator, l'Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ).
This growth was largely attributed to an expanded football schedule and increased interest in niche games, as reported by ANJ on Monday.
The licensed betting market in 2025 witnessed an increase in active accounts, which jumped 7.9% to 5.27 million, while the number of unique players grew by 8.6% to 3.65 million. Each bettor's average annual stake climbed to €3,159 ($3,533), reflecting a 25% increase since 2020.
Operators offered €180 million in financial incentives throughout the year, mainly in the form of retention bonuses for bettors.
However, ANJ expressed concerns regarding player protection, particularly in relation to the betting behaviors of high-risk players. Utilizing its classification system, which categorizes players into recreational, moderate risk, excessive, and manifestly excessive groups, ANJ observed that excessive bettors tended to focus their stakes on niche competitions and live markets.
Data from early 2026 highlighted that over 80% of stakes from excessive or manifestly excessive players were placed on leagues in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Australia, competitions that usually see limited casual interest. Furthermore, 80%-89% of bets on sub-match outcomes—including half-time scores, quarter-time results, set results, and game bets in tennis—came from players classified as excessive. While ANJ clarified that these patterns did not necessarily imply a greater addiction risk in these competitions, they likely indicated a shortage of casual bettors.
To address these issues, ANJ proposed integrating enhanced player-safety measures regarding the types of competitions and bets that are authorized.
In a separate estimate, the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction indicated that approximately 1.17 million individuals in France exhibited problematic gambling behavior, with roughly 360,000 falling into the excessive category.
The licensed betting market also saw an increase in stakes, which rose by 12% to €11.52 billion, alongside a 10.4% year-on-year growth in GGR, bringing it to €1.766 billion. These trends continue the recovery that began in 2024, despite the absence of major events like a European Championship that year.
Football dominated this growth, accounting for 54.9% of all stakes (€6.32 billion) and being responsible for nearly half of the increased betting volumes. While football wagers rose by 10.2%, ANJ suggested this figure may understate the sport's actual momentum since 2024 included the European Championship, which alone generated €438 million in bets. Adjusted estimates indicate that football stakes growth in 2025 could range between 10% and 19%, depending on how bets would have been distributed without the Euros.
Tennis also contributed to the upward trend, representing 23% of overall stakes (€2.65 billion) and seeing a 16% increase in betting activity, despite lacking a standout event in 2025.
A key factor in football's expansion was the increased number of matches available for betting. The UEFA Champions League underwent a format change, boosting its match calendar from 137 to 189 games, which marks a 38% increase and led to a 48.6% rise in stakes for the competition. ANJ noted that about 75% of this growth stems from the number of matches rather than an increase in average bet size per game.
The inaugural edition of the revamped Club World Cup generated significant betting interest as well, with an average stake of around €3.9 million per match, approaching the Champions League's average of €4.4 million per game. The popularity of FIFA World Cup betting also surged, with a survey conducted by Toluna-Harris Interactive among 1,071 French adults showing a heightened enthusiasm for the upcoming tournament. Among respondents, 41% indicated their intent to place real-money bets on match outcomes through mobile apps, websites, or physical betting venues, surpassing earlier figures.
Live betting on less prominent competitions represented a larger share of total stakes, with 26% for the UEFA Champions League and 30%-35% for major domestic leagues. In contrast, this figure surged to approximately 48% for secondary competitions and 50%-58% for European second-tier divisions and unlisted leagues. ANJ attributed this trend partly to the global scheduling of football, where South American leagues filled nighttime slots and Asian and Oceanian fixtures catered to French audiences in the morning, creating a nearly 24-hour live betting window.
Under French regulations, the return to player (RTP) for online sports betting is capped at 85% on an annual average per operator. The market recorded an RTP of 84.67% in 2025. ANJ indicated that in September, favorable outcomes temporarily raised the monthly payout rate to 94.5%, exceeding the annual limit. However, adjustments in October and November reduced the RTP to 82.3% and 74.2%, respectively, bringing the cumulative RTP back under the legal threshold, which suggested that operators adjusted odds to comply with regulations.
