France’s GGR has grown 3.5% year on year (YoY) to €5.7bn (£5bn) in H1 2025, fuelled by online sports betting and FDJ United “consolidating its position across all segments”.
The French National Gaming Authority (ANJ) said the market’s growth could continue throughout the remainder of the year if new players are retained.
However, the regulator noted gains could be impacted by the tax increase implemented on 1 July.
Active player accounts in H1 rose 9% YoY to 4.7 million. The ANJ said growth was observable across online sports betting, horseracing and poker, and that successful cross-selling could be pushing engagement up.
The ANJ announced online GGR was €1.4bn for the first six months of 2025, up 6% YoY, with online sports betting accounting for at €961m of that total.
Online sports betting stakes also rose 15% YoY to €6bn and active players jumped 10%.
Those increases came despite Euro 2024 taking place last year. Football accounted for 52% of all stakes, driven by the change in format to the Champions League and PSG winning the tournament.
Tennis was the second-most popular sport, followed by basketball.
However, horseracing had a “mixed performance”, as stakes rose 1% YoY to €795m and GGR was flat at €174m.
Horseracing active player accounts grew 3% YoY to 513,000. However, unique players fell 3% YoY to 447,000.
There was a decline in poker GGR of 4% YoY to €246m. Despite the dip, active player accounts were up 12%, while unique players rose 10% to 1.3 million.
ANJ said that FDJ United was a key driver for the growth in the market. The Unibet parent company holds a monopoly on retail sports betting and the lottery in France.
FDJ United reported revenue of €1.9bn in H1 2025, although there was an 11.5% decline in online sports betting and gaming revenue to €466m.
The French lottery and retail sports betting arm is the operator’s largest, delivering revenue of €1.3bn.
PMU, which holds the retail monopoly on horseracing, reported GGR of €830m in H1, down 2.6% YoY.
On the market’s growth so far this year, the ANJ said: “The growth of the gambling market in the first half of 2025 appears to maintain the characteristics observed over the past two years, with an online market driven by sports betting, and one player, FDJ United, consolidating its position across all segments.
“The 2025 sporting calendar, although less dense than in 2024, does not appear to have significantly impacted the dynamism of the gambling market.
“This growth could continue in the second half of the year if newly recruited players are retained and if the recruitment of new players continues, under the effect of the operators’ commercial strategies (increase in the average basket, cross-selling, etc.).
“The increase in taxation that took place on 1 July, particularly on operators’ marketing expenses, may nevertheless have an impact that is still difficult to assess.”
The post French GGR jumps 3.5% to €5.7bn for H1 2025 first appeared on EGR Intel.
ANJ report says gambling market is “reaching an unprecedented level of activity” due to FDJ United’s growth and online sports betting increases
The post French GGR jumps 3.5% to €5.7bn for H1 2025 first appeared on EGR Intel.