France slows down its gambling market (+0.5%) while the World Cup boosts sports betting by 47% and brings online to a record 5.85 million active accounts
Online gambling, with 25.6% of the market, is the only driver of growth.
The French gambling market almost stagnated in the first half of 2026. Its gross gambling product (GGR), excluding casinos and gambling clubs, reached €5.66 billion, only 0.5% more than a year earlier. In the same period of 2025 it had grown by 4.1%.
This is according to the six-monthly analysis of the National Gambling Authority (ANJ), the French regulator, published on October 15. The ANJ has been chaired since July by Pascal Chevremont. The document shows a market split in two: online gambling is up and the two operators with exclusive rights, FDJ United and the PMU, are falling.
Online, the only engine
The GGR of online gaming reached 1,449 million euros, 11% more, and already represents 25.6% of the market, 2.4 points more than a year ago. It contributes 2.5 points of growth to the market as a whole. FDJ United and the PMU subtract 1.2 and 0.8 points.
Sports betting continues to be the great driver of online: it generates 995 million GGR (+11.6%) and 68.6% of the segment. It is followed by poker, with 290 million (+13.4%), which is growing again after stagnating in 2025, mainly thanks to tournaments and Sit&Go's. Online horse racing betting totals 164 million GGR (+2.8%), but bets grow by 16% to 920 million, its largest increase since 2021.
June, the month of the World Cup
The growth of sports betting is concentrated in June, when the World Cup begins. In the first half of the year, the amounts wagered rose by 10.6%, to 6,616 million euros. But from January to May they grew by 4%, and in June they shot up by 47%.
Football accounts for 8.6 of those 10.6 points of increase. Football bets grew by 116% in June, and sport already accounts for 56% of all sports bets. Tennis, on the other hand, fell by 13.5% in June and its weight fell from 26% to 23%.
The World Cup also brings new bettors. Active sports betting accounts rose by 69% in June, to 3.1 million. It coincides with a strong promotional effort: recruitment bonuses are almost quadrupled compared to June 2025 (9 million compared to 2.4 million). At the same time, the amount bet per account fell by 14% in the first half of the year and the average bet went from 14.6 to 14 euros.
Record 5.85 million active accounts
In total, French online gambling has 5.85 million active accounts, up 24%, and 4.06 million unique players, up 17%. Players are increasingly combining more operators and modalities: each one has an average of 1.44 accounts, compared to 1.37 a year ago, and plays in 1.45 segments. Poker is the fastest growing in players, with 39% more active accounts, and its users are already 44% of the unique players online.
The bonuses and promotions given to players total 199 million euros, 28% more. They grow two and a half times faster than the online GGR and are already equivalent to 13.8% of that GGR, compared to 11.9% a year earlier.
FDJ United and PMU, on the decline
The GGR of FDJ United, the former French public lottery operator that maintains the exclusive right to the lottery and sports betting on the physical network, is down 2% to €3.429 billion. Even so, it accounts for 61% of the market. The drop comes almost entirely from the lottery (?64 million): draw games are down 7.6%. According to the company, the cause is fewer and fewer Euromillions jackpots and the lower influx to points of sale due to the heat waves of the second quarter.
The PMU, which has the exclusive right to horse racing betting on the physical network, falls for the third consecutive year. The bet falls by 3.8%, to 3,100 million, and its GGR by 5.8%, to 782 million. The decline accelerates compared to the ?2.6% of 2025. Its market share drops to 13.8% and is now 3.8 points below online sports betting. By 2026, the PMU plans to deliver 725 million to the equestrian sector, compared to 802 million in 2025, in a year that the ANJ describes as a transition, with renewal of its management and the development of a "PMU 2030 Pact".
Outlook for the second half of the year
According to the ANJ, the result of the year will depend in large part on FDJ United, which aims to keep the GGR of its network stable in France. Online gambling faces the second half of the year with an unprecedented number of players. Its growth will depend on what those players do after the World Cup final, which was played on July 19.
The report comes at a time of regulatory changes in France. In recent weeks, the country has extended control of gambling advertising to influencers and games with digital assets. Earlier, it ordered Polymarket to be blocked and tweaked the offer of FDJ and PMU.
