French GGR hits record €12.9bn in FY22
This is a rise of 20%, according to France’s gambling regulator l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ). The regulator released its full-year 2022 report today (Wednesday).
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, ANJ president, said the year had consisted of implementing the tools ANJ has at its disposal, including “action plans, promotional strategies, gaming programmes of operators under monopoly, gaming authorisations” and “promotional strategies”.
A total of €2.17bn in GGR came from online gambling. This consisted of €1.38bn in online sports betting, €442m in online poker and €346m in online horse racing bets.
France’s monopoly holders, Française des Jeux (FDJ) and Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU) made up €8.20bn of the total GGR.
Land-based casinos and gaming clubs made up the remaining €2.59bn. Individually, both segments saw significant rises in GGR for the year. ANJ attributed this to the ending of Covid-19 restrictions.
Casino revenue rose by 130.0% to €2.48bn, while gaming clubs’ revenue shot up by 189% to €107m.
ANJ activity in 2022
In total, operators’ sponsorships in sports generated €45.0m in 2022. ANJ noted that €15m of this came from unlicensed operators.
ANJ was heavily involved in the regulation of gambling in sports in 2022. The regulator implemented a number of safer gambling plans throughout the year, spurred on by an influx of gambling ads related to the 2020 UEFA European Championship.
The tournament was held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In September that year, the regulator launched a public consultation on marketing to address what it viewed as excessive advertising.
ANJ told operators that “a line was crossed” in the volume of ads during the tournament. In February 2022, ANJ said there had been an “oversaturation” of ads in the previous year.
During the year, the regulator repeatedly told operators to reduce or minimise the number of ads they released, and to pay attention to France’s existing gambling advertising laws. Operators were also warned to strengthen their problem gambling provisions.
At the end of 2022, operators pledged to reduce the number of ads they planned to show during the 2022 Fifa World Cup. The operators signed four marketing charters.