French Online Gambling Market Grows Strongly in Q1 2018

May 2010 was a date of transformation for the French online gambling market, with the government deciding to approve legislation that allowed betting on sports and online poker. As of 2018, it would appear that the market is going from strength to strength, based on freshly released figures from Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL).

Market Review Published for Q1 2018

ARJEL serves as the country’s online gambling regulator and has recently published a quarterly market review for the three months up to 31 March 2018. And one of the principal findings was that gross gambling revenue reached €147 million for Q1 2018, representing a 55% year-on-year increase from the €94 million posted in Q1 2017.

The numbers were even greater when analysing the performance of sports betting operators, who processed €847 million worth of wagers during Q1 2018. Comparatively, this represented a 34% increase on the €633 million in wagering that was generated in Q2 2017.

Rise in Active Accounts

ARJEL believes that a rise in active player accounts helped to spur the increased figures. In particular, the number of active accounts rose from 1.5 million in Q1 2017 to surpass the 1.9 million mark in Q1 2018. In terms of active weekly players, there was a 36% year-on-year increase to reach 462,500 accounts.

When delving deeper into the demographics, it emerged that male players held 1.63 million accounts, which was a 24% increase from Q1 2017 to Q1 2018. Meanwhile, female accounts rose by 30% over the same period to reach 222,000.

In addition, it transpired that females were most interested in sports betting, with the 134,000 active accounts representing 69% growth. That increase was not isolated to female players, as the sports betting sector saw a year-on-year increase in active accounts from 900,000 in Q1 2017 to 1.3 million in Q1 2018, which was a rise of 40%.