{"id":81838,"date":"2025-05-07T12:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T12:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/81838\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T12:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T12:31:09","slug":"frances-gambling-sector-grows-as-tax-rate-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/81838\/","title":{"rendered":"France’s gambling sector grows, as tax rate looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

France’s gambling sector returned to growth in 2024, with higher younger and female participation. However, incoming taxes could negate future gains.<\/strong><\/p>\n

France\u2019s gambling sector shows growth indicators as younger players have entered the market and female participation in sports betting has risen, according to 2024 player activity and revenue data from the l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 Nationale des Jeux (ANJ).<\/p>\n

In its 2024 market review<\/a> the ANJ insisted the sector was showing signs of \u201cvitality\u201d following two consecutive years of revenue decline for active player accounts (APAs)<\/p>\n

In 2024 APAs increased 11% year-on-year to 5.7 million. ANJ said that trend was seen across a number of verticals, with player accounts in sports betting up 13%, poker up 11% and horse racing receiving a 4% bump. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This was compared to APAs falling 3.9% year-on-year in 2023. While uniques were down 7.3% during the 12-month period.<\/p>\n

In terms of revenue, overall GGR for 2024 hit \u20ac14 billion ($15.8 billion), up 4.7% year-on-year.<\/p>\n

Online GGR accounted for 18.6% of the total gambling market, at \u20ac2.6 billion. This marked a 12% increase on the previous year. This was driven by a 19% increase in online sports betting which reached \u20ac1.8 billion. Betting accounted for 69.2% of the total online market. <\/p>\n

Female participation in sports betting rises<\/p>\n

The ANJ has noted a significant uptick in female gamblers in the sports betting segment.<\/p>\n

Female participation in sports betting increased by 14.5% to reach half a million players in 2024. While total sports betting players increased 8.5% to 2.8 million.<\/p>\n

The ANJ stated the increase in female players is in part down to increasing coverage of women\u2019s sports competitions and a linked \u201ccatch-up effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

The largest age demographic of female players was 25-34, which stood at 174,340 players in 2024. While the 18-24 age range was 142,902 players and 35-44 was 96,480.<\/p>\n

Looking more broadly at all genders, betting participants aged between 18 and 24 accounted for 30% of the segment in 2024. <\/p>\n

As player activity and revenue rise, the French regulator warned player risk could increase in 2025, as operators have outlined increased advertising budgets for the year. <\/p>\n

Despite no major international sports events planned this year, operators have signalled an intent to raise marketing spend.<\/p>\n

Operators are required to report their marketing spend plans to the regulator at the beginning of each year. <\/p>\n

In January, the ANJ called on the online sector<\/a> to review and bring down its promotional spending in 2025. This was after they reported marketing spend would likely increase 11% across the sector. <\/p>\n

This is due to hit roughly \u20ac695 million ($724 million) by the end of 2025. This figure accounts for both marketing spend and player bonuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dynamics of the online market are the result of the aggressive commercial policies implemented by operators. This is marked by an increase in budgets dedicated to commercial communications, the maintenance of a high level of financial rewards and the deployment of cross-selling strategies between the different segments,\u201d the ANJ stated in its 2024 market review.<\/p>\n

Incoming tax increases<\/p>\n

While the ANJ has pointed to a fresh market \u201cvitality\u201d in 2024, this may falter as new tax rates come into effect this year. <\/p>\n

FDJ United warned in its full-year results<\/a> that its French tax bill hit almost \u20ac45 million in 2024. Group revenue for the year came in at \u20ac3.07 billion, up 16.9% year-on-year. It expects an even higher impact in 2025. <\/p>\n

In France, operators are due to pay higher tax and social security contributions <\/a>as of July. These include increased social security contributions. These were set out in a finance bill included in France\u2019s 2025 budget.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s gambling tax rates are based on GGR and differ between verticals. Operators then pay a separate social security contribution, which will increase across all verticals.<\/p>\n

As part of the social security payments, online sports betting contributions are being increased from 10.6% to 15%. While on-premises sports betting contributions are moving from 6.6% to 7.6%.<\/p>\n

The ANJ acknowledged that gambling taxation could have an impact on the 2025 market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be important to determine whether the new 15% tax on commercial communications expenditure by online sports betting operators will have an impact on the actual amount of investment made in the second half of the year,\u201d the regulator said. <\/p>\n

Betclic Everest Group owner Banijay Group CEO Fran\u00e7ois Riahi told analysts in its full-year 2024 results, the tax increase in France are \u201canti-competitive\u201d. The company plans to contest them with the authorities. In its results published 6 March<\/a>, it estimated it would face a \u20ac20m impact from taxes in its 2025 results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France’s gambling sector returned to growth in 2024, with higher younger and female participation. However, incoming taxes could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[39673,2000,299,36,39674,5240],"class_list":{"0":"post-81838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-anj","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-lautorite-nationale-des-jeux","13":"tag-online-gambling"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114466566019229323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}