French GGR flat at €5.7bn in H1 as online grows 11%

France's overall gross gambling revenue held flat at €5.7bn (£4.9bn) in the first half of the year, according to the French National Gaming Authority (ANJ), even as online GGR rose 11% year on year to €1.45bn.

The regulator said online gaming was the sole source of growth across the market, driven almost entirely by the football World Cup. Sports betting stakes climbed 47% compared with just 4% growth between January and May.

ANJ cautioned that full-year online growth will hinge on whether bettors who signed up during the tournament keep playing now it has finished. Active sports betting accounts jumped 69% year on year in June, but stakes per account fell 14% and live betting's share of activity dropped from 54% to 44%.

Online football accounted for 56% of all stakes placed, the regulator said, with tennis in second place and basketball third.

Poker GGR rose 13.4% year on year to €290m, recovering after a flat 2025, as active accounts grew 39% to 2.3 million. Online horseracing posted its strongest period since 2021, with stakes up 15.8% to €920m and GGR up 2.8% to €164m.

Across the online market, active player accounts rose 24% to a record 5.9 million, including four million unique players, up 17% year on year. Bonus spending increased 28% to €199m, outpacing GGR growth two-and-a-half times over and representing 13.8% of online GGR. Sports betting bonuses alone rose 35% to €129m, with €35.5m handed out in June, double the equivalent figure for the first half of 2025.

FDJ United, which holds the retail monopoly on sports betting and the lottery in France, reported a 2% year-on-year fall in French network GGR to €3.4bn, driven largely by weaker lottery sales. Lottery accounted for most of the decline, down €64m, or 2.1%.

At group level the operator's GGR fell 1.3%, its revenue dropped 4.5% to €1.8bn on higher gambling taxes in markets including the UK and the Netherlands, and EBITDA slipped 8.4% to €404m. Draw games fell 7.6%, which EGR reported was linked to fewer and smaller EuroMillions jackpots and a Q2 heatwave that reduced footfall at retail outlets.

PMU, which holds the retail monopoly on horseracing, recorded a third consecutive annual decline, which ANJ described as an accelerating trend. Stakes fell 3.8% to €3.1bn and GGR dropped 5.8% to €782m. PMU still controls three-quarters of the horseracing market, though its share of stakes slipped from 80% to 77% year on year.

ANJ said the online market enters the second half of the year with what it called an unprecedented player base of 5.85 million active accounts, adding that annual growth will depend on how those players behave now the World Cup has ended.

The regulator noted that FDJ United, which accounts for 61% of GGR excluding casinos and gaming clubs, is targeting stable GGR for its French network in fiscal year 2026.

On PMU, ANJ said 2026 is a year of transition involving a renewal of governance and the development of a 'PMU 2030 Pact'. The operator's 2026 budget allows for a €725m payment to the horseracing industry, down from €802m in 2025.