French Totals Looking Golden in Sports Betting Turnover from Rio 2016

The Olympics are over, but the Olympic gambling results are just beginning to come in. 

France’s Strong Improvement

European online sports betting heavyweight France showed a staggering Olympic-on-Olympic improvement of over three-quarters more wagers at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games over its predecessor four years ago in London. 

Reported Totals

French regulator ARJEL reports that total Olympic wagers across the 12 French-licensed operators broke €33.9m during the Rio games, for a total increase of €19.2m from four years ago, with online Olympic revenue more than doubling from €3.3m to €6.8m.

Sole Decline

The only decline was in the percentage of wagers placed in-play, or during the match and focussing exclusively on outcomes of events within the match itself, as opposed to the final outcome. Percentage of In-play wagers dropped from 57% in London to 50% in Rio.

In-play, in-Bed

The result was explained by ARJEL as the result of time difference, with the majority of French citizens asleep in the wee hours of the morning while Rio’s events took place, including the most popular ones on which to wager.

Medal Sports 

As far as most popular events to bet on, the French gold medalling Olympic sport was tennis, which attracted total wagers of €8.5m from French punters. Basketball silvered with €6m, football bronzed with €5.8m, and honourable mention went to handball (€5.4m) and volleyball (€2.1m).

Euro 2016 Contribution

As some might remember, there also was a Euro 2016 football tournament earlier in the summer, propelling overall French-licensed sports betting turnover and revenue to another gold medal performance: an all-time high in recorded revenue totals since the regulated market launched in 2010.

Q2 Totals

As for Q2 2016, French operators took in €585m worth of sports wagers in the three months ending June 30, representing a massive 73% year-on-year jump from Q2 2015.  The Euro 2016 tournament contributed €141m.

Sports Betting Gold

Another gold medal went to total sports betting revenue in Q2 for France, a figure representing a 45% increase to a record €91m.  

Market Medal Forecast

With online innovation and spreading regulation making it exponentially easier to bet on sporting outcomes since the last Olympics, it is no surprise that a large regulated market such as France could achieve such glistening results.  Look for other national rates of increase to provide stiff competition as they roll in.