Online gambling sector posts record growth in France

The online gaming sector in France has maintained its solid growth trajectory as it posted record growth in the fourth quarter of 2018.

ARJEL, the gambling authority of France, has recently results the fourth quarter financial results.

As per the figures, betting companies in France posted a betting turnover of €3.9 billion, representing 56 per cent rise year on year. This is the highest betting revenue recorded in the country since online betting was legalised in 2010.

During the last quarter the value of wagers placed on sporting events was €1.06 billion, which is also a record for quarterly turnovers. The overall revenue generated for the quarter was €215 million, a jump of 32 per cent. The number of active punters also increased by 39 per cent to an average of 546,000 each week.

Volleyball posted the biggest gain percentage of all sports, with an impressive €18.8 million in bet values, registering a robust growth of more than 100 per cent from Q4 of 2017.

Football remained the most popular game for betting, as it generated a turnover of €663 million. The figure marked an increase of 54 per cent. It was followed by Basketball which came a distant second with €162.7 million in bets value. The third most popular market among punters was tennis which realised a turnover of €111.4 million, marking a 70 per cent improvement.

Online poker and horse racing did not record high turnovers as the other markets. The revenue from poker dropped by 1 per cent to €65 million, and tournaments seemed to rake in more profits than cash games. However, the number of active players per week increased by 2 per cent to 256,000.

In horse racing, the value of bets collected by operators in Q4 rose by 2 per cent to €275 million, while the increase in revenue was a meagre 1 per cent to €67 million.