France’s igaming market brings in record revenue in Q2

This was a rise of 91.0% compared to the revenue of €323.0m generated in Q2 2020, a quarter affected by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

A total of €420.0m of the revenue was made up from online sports betting, which was also a record number. This was a significant increase of 346.8% from €94.0m in Q2 2020.

“The French bet more online and quite logically, the Euros boosted the segment of sports betting, with revenue reaching another record this quarter,” said Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, president of the ANJ.

Horse betting made up €95.0m of the total, a rise of 7.9% year-on-year.

The remaining €103m was made up by online poker, down 27.4% from €142m compared to the previous second quarter.

The total number of active player accounts also grew in the second quarter, from 2.0m in Q2 2020 to 3.3m in Q2 2021, a rise of 65.2%.

Sports betting had the most active players at 2.7m, while horse betting had 921,000. Poker made up the remaining 363,000.

The amounts deposited by players in Q2 reached €1.11bn, the third quarter in which deposits exceed €1bn. This was up by 89.0% from Q2 2020.

The deposits were mostly made by credit cards, at 79.0%.

Withdrawals hit €523.0m, an increase of 84.0% year-on-year.

In terms of marketing, the budget was €78.0m in Q2 2021, up 387.5% year-on-year.. The highest amount of this budget- 30.0%- went on retention bonuses. A total of 15% was directed towards acquisition bonuses, while 14% was aimed at television and cinema marketing. The remaining budget was aimed at several different marketing strategies, such as sponsoring and radio advertising.

These results come weeks after ANJ announced a public consultation into gambling advertising in France, after ANJ branded the advertising tactics during the Euros as “questionable”.

A total of 1% of bettors contributed greater than €10,000 in stakes, the same percentage as listed for Q2 2020, though these totals were rounded to the nearest percent. 4% contributed between €3,000 and €10,000 while 8% provided between €1,000 and €3,000. These were increases of 2.0% and 3.0% year-on-year respectively.

A plurality of bettors – 26%- provided between €0 an €30 towards stakes, a significant drop of 15% compared to Q2 2020.

The top 10% of bettors contributed 76.0% in stakes, a decrease of 2.0% year-on-year. The top 1% contributed 35.0%, down 3.0%,