France Market Reports Record Growth for 2020, with Momentum for 2021
Published April 7, 2021 by Lee R
New France online regulator ANJ releases figures indicating a highly adaptive and growing market.
The massive French online gaming market grew at record pace for 2020, turning in multi-billion dollar revenue, according to official figures.
How France Grew
A lucrative and massive mainstream EU market which is still growing, France's online gaming operators generated a record €1.74bn ($2.08bn) for 2020, with the growth spurred by a strong second half that made up for covid disruptions and infused a momentum which is carrying into 2021.
Sports Betting's Lead
France's gaming regulator L’Autorité nationale des Jeux (ANJ) called the year “transformational,” as driven by the strong vertical of sports betting revenue growing 6.8% to €940m.
This growth came despite all live events being shut down in the first half of 2020, which did not stop stakes from growing 5.8% to €5.35bn by the end of the year, driven by a year-on-year increase in active player accounts of 30%.
ANJ Comments
ANJ called the year 2020 extraordinary and “a turning point for the online gaming industry; it is both a year of change and a record year in terms of activity levels.”
ANJ took over as regulator during 2020 to bring all gambling regulation in France under a single body, and commented further on the fresh organisational data:
“Over the whole of 2020, the online market shows very vigorous growth. The turnover of the sector grew by 22% in 2020 to reach €1.7bn: its highest level in a calendar year since the opening of the sector.”
Driving the Recovery
The H2 comeback was specifically traced to strong performances such as Q4's sports betting revenue spike year-on-year spike from 2019 of 54.8%, to reach €356m.
Important Poker Contribution
Always important poker reported gains as well, showing a year-on-year increase of 64% year-on-year to €446m, and active account numbers up 53.1% to 1.8 million. With France sharing poker pools with other EU countries such as Portugal and Spain, the success of the poker program in France has significant ramifications for other jurisdictions considering creating separate pools or joining the EU pool in the future.
Outlook
Beyond sports betting and poker, the France market still appears to have room to grow with online casino, and overall appears extremely robust after passing the ultimate test in 2020.
