French iGaming Revenue: Sportsbetting Profits, Poker and Horses Down

France's newly regulated iGaming sector is living off of sports betting right now.

Loose ends

Without online sports betting, France regulated sector might be in trouble, because online poker stakes and online horse racing pari mutuel volumes dropped off, despite stabilising tournament fees.

Growth for Betting

The fourth quarter of 2014 brought returns of 22% growth for quarterly stakes and 31% growth for annuals.

France's regulator ARJEL reports that online betting stakes rose to stakes of €322m during the quarter, over €264m in 2013, with annual stakes up to €1.1bn from €848m over the 2013. The profits for the quarter remained the same at €54m but saw an annual jump of 38% to €227m (€164m in 2013).

Not surprisingly, football proved to be the leading sport for online bettors, accounting for 64% of online stakes, with basketball next at 15%, a jump of four points from the previous year; and tennis placing third in market share at 9%. As for overall participation, active player accounts rose a significant 36% to 1,142,000 in 2014 (842,000 in 2013).

In the retail sector, similar advances were recorded with market monopoly Française des jeux showing a 20% rise in stakes to reach the €2bn for 2014 in large part due to the World Cup as well as the consistently competitive domestic football league.

Carrying the Load

The strengths of these sectors are not only encouraging, but necessary as stakes for online horse racing pari mutuel dropped 7% year-on-year to €1.03bn, down to 2011 levels, with quarterly volume falling 2% to €271.8m, as opposed to the €278m recorded for the third quarter of 2013.

Online poker showed cash issues with quarterly stakes continuing to drop--down 12% to €1bn compared from the €1.2bn recorded in 2013, with annual stakes down to €4.3bn from the 2013 total of €5bn.

Balance for Sustainability

Sports betting was always going to be reliable, but France's market needs to be balanced in order for long-term sustainability of the market in the new regulation era.