France's gambling market grows 0.5% in H1, all of it from online games

Online games supplied all of the growth in France’s gambling market in the first half of 2026, lifting it just 0.5%. The first half of 2025 had grown 4.1%.

The ANJ is France’s gambling regulator. Casino and club results are reported once a year and are not included.

By the numbers

• Online GGR: €1.45bn, up 11%, or 25.6% of the market.
• Active player accounts: 5.85m, up 24% on the first half of 2025, a record for the regulator.
• Online sports betting stakes: €6.6bn, up 10.6% over the half-year.
• Poker GGR: €290m, up 13.4%; Sit&Go formats are 70% of it.
• Horse-race betting stakes: €920m, up 16%, the biggest rise since 2021, with players up only 3%.

What drove it

Sports betting growth was concentrated in June, when the football World Cup began. Stakes rose 4% from January to May and 47% in June. Active accounts were 69% higher in June 2026 than a year earlier.

The ANJ says this can be set beside operators’ promotional push in the same period: acquisition bonuses were almost four times June 2025 levels.

The exclusive-rights operators

FDJ United’s GGR from activities under French exclusive rights fell 2% to €3.43bn, or 61% of the market excluding casinos and clubs. Lottery accounted for most of the drop (down €64m). Draw games fell 7.6%. The operator attributes that to fewer and smaller Euromillions jackpots and lower footfall at points of sale in the second quarter because of heatwaves. Excluding long Euromillions cycles, lottery GGR rose 1%, it says.

PMU’s exclusive-rights activities fell for a third year running. Stakes dropped 3.8% to €3.1bn and GGR 5.8% to €782m, against a 2.6% fall in the first half of 2025.

The big picture

The ANJ also linked football betting growth to more matches in an analysis of 2025 published on 12 October 2026.

What’s next

The ANJ says full-year online growth will depend on how the record player base behaves after the World Cup. FDJ United has said it aims for stable GGR from its French network activities in 2026.

PMU calls 2026 a year of transition, with a new governance and a “Pacte PMU 2030”; its budget provides €725m for the horse-racing sector, against €802m in 2025. The ANJ’s release does not say what the pact contains.