French iGambling Markets Posts €147M Revenue Record in Q1

Home » Poker News » French iGambling Markets Posts €147M Revenue Record in Q1

Wednesday, May 9th, 2018 | Written by Adam Brown

France’s regulated internet gambling market generated €147 million ($175.3m) in gross gambling revenue for Q1 of 2018, with that amount 55% more than the €94 million taken during the first three months of last year. The quarterly figure is also the highest reported since the country regulated its online gambling market back in 2010, with the impressive results released on Monday by the French gaming regulator ARJEL (Autorite de regulation des jeux en ligne).

Furthermore, the market’s significant growth was attained despite licensed operators having spent just €42 million advertising their products in the country, down from the €50 million they has shelled out during Q1 of last year.

Active User Accounts Soaring

During the three months ending March 31st, France’s online gambling market experienced growth across all of its verticals, with ARJEL noting that there were 1.9 million active accounts in Q1 compared to 1.5 million during the same period in 2017. From that number, there were 1.63 million online accounts owned by male gamblers, or 24% more than Q1 of 2017, while those owned by women had also increased by an impressive 30% to 222,000.

In terms of individual verticals, female online poker accounts rose by 7% to 73,000, and horse racing by 5% to 54,000. This indicates that women players are less interested in gambling on these games than on sports, where their accounts jumped by a massive 69% to 134,000, with male sports accounts also soaring by 42%.

Furthermore, weekly active bettors spiked by 36% to 462,500, helped in no small part by licensed operators increasing the number of bonus offers available in Q1 by a huge 53% to €19.6 million.

Online Sports Betting Record

Online sports betting saw a record €847 million in online sports wagers placed in Q1, marking another quarterly high for the sector, as well as a 34% increase versus the €633 million collected last year.

The most popular sport to bet on last quarter was football, which accounted for 55% of total wagering handle, with the €465m in bets taken higher by 34% year-on-year; French clubs making progress in the Champions League and Europa League finals helped push wagering in these competitions up by 47% and 73% respectively.

In the meantime, tennis claimed a 19% share of the quarter’s overall handle, with its wagers increasing by 26% to €163m, followed by basketball boasting a 15% share overall, with wagers soaring by 53% to €125m, of which €80.6m was accounted for by the National Basketball Association. Finally, online horseracing betting revenue rose by 8% to €65m, with horseracing wagers having now shown year-on-year growth for the fourth consecutive quarter, while a disappointing €4.4m was bet on the 2018 Winter Olympics which took place in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Online Poker Growing

In Q1, Frances online poker market saw its cash game spending rise by 18% to €1.1 billion, although revenue actually slipped by 2% to €24.1m, mostly due to the number of weekly active accounts falling by 1% to 79,000 during the quarter. Online poker tournaments, on the other hand, noted a 14% rise in fees to €594m, with tourney revenue improving by 15% to €44.8m, year-on-year.

In July 2017, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal signed a shared liquidity deal permitting operators to merge player pools across their respective countries. On January 16th, PokerStars then ushered in a new era for the continent’s online poker market after becoming the first online poker operator to combine player pools with another European country, in this case Spain. France’s online poker market is expected to make huge strides after more companies apply for shared liquidity licenses, and as Guy Templer, Chief Operating Officer of The Stars Group, stated at the time:

“This will be great for players and great for the poker category. Having a strong, competitive regulated offering — which comes from combining player pools — has proven to be attractive to consumers who might otherwise be choosing to play on unlicensed and potentially unsafe sites.”

Currently, PokerStars is still the sole operator offering shared poker tables in Europe, but Partypoker has already obtained the necessary license and is currently in the process of changing its .es website to look like its global .com website, indicating that it will soon be launching a shared Franco-Spanish offering. Italy is expected to join the bandwagon later on in the year, but must first resolve some internal issues raised by politicians concerning money laundering, and the possibility of other criminal activities taking place.