ANJ Report: French Online Sports Betting Stakes Rose 12% to €11.5B in 2025

In 2025, gross gaming revenue (turnover) from online sports betting reached €1766 million (+10.4%) and stakes €11,517 million (+12.0%). In a report published, the French National Gaming Authority (ANJ) examined the drivers of this growth and how it is managed by operators. It also shows that certain betting offers are primarily driven by players identified as problem gamblers.

With €11.5 billion in stakes (+12.0%) and €1766 million in gross gaming revenue (+10.4%), sports betting confirmed in 2025 the momentum begun in 2024, despite a calendar lacking major events. The analysis by sport carried out by the ANJ (French National Gaming Authority) leads to three main observations:

1 - Growth driven by the expansion of football offerings and the progress of tennis

Football, accounting for 54.9% of bets, contributes to nearly half of the segment’s betting growth and two-thirds of the gross gaming revenue (GGR). Its growth (+10.2%) underestimates its true momentum, as 2024 benefited from the European Championship (€438 million in bets). Its growth is therefore estimated to be between +10% and +19%, depending on the base effect used.

A significant portion of this growth stems from the expansion of the offering itself. By 2025, the Champions League will have increased from 137 matches in 2024 to 189 in 2025 (+38%), with stakes rising by 48.6%. Three-quarters of this increase is attributable to the greater number of matches, while the average stake per match has increased more moderately, in line with the overall intensification of betting activity observed in this segment. This effect does not hold true for all competitions. The Europa League and the Conference League, which underwent the same format change, saw only slight growth. The Club World Cup, a new competition with a 63-match format, reached €3.9 million per match in its inaugural edition, close to that of the Champions League (€4.4 million), football’s flagship product.

The most heavily bet matches of the year show a premium for the involvement of a French team or athlete: the first two are PSG finals (€38.2M and €26.7M).

Tennis (23.0% of stakes) presents a different profile: a growth of +16.0% without exceptional events.

2 - A betting structure revealing a set of secondary competitions with low profile

Sports have contrasting supply structures. In basketball, the NBA alone accounts for 54% of bets, in tennis, 7 tournament categories cover 94% of bets, in football, conversely, 35 competitions are needed to reach 90% of bets, out of the 103 competitions open to betting.

The share of live betting decreases with the popularity of the competitions: from 26% for the Champions League and 30% to 35% for major leagues, it reaches 48% for secondary competitions, and up to 50% to 58% for European second divisions and the general category of unlisted leagues. This football offering is available around the clock. In addition to European matches, South American leagues are covered at night, and Asian and Oceanian leagues in the morning.

3 - Structuring management of the return to player (RTP) rate

The return to player (RTP) rate for online sports betting is capped at 85%, on an annual average basis for each operator. This represents the maximum proportion of money paid out on average to players by sports betting operators. Operators typically set their RTP close to this cap. In 2025, it stood at 84.67%.

The 2025 financial year illustrates the impact of this mechanism on the market. In September, favourable sporting results for bettors brought the monthly payout ratio (TRP) to 94.5% of the segment and the cumulative TRP above the cap (85.9%). The monthly TRPs for October and November (82.3% and then 74.2%) brought the cumulative total back down to 84.67% at the end of November. This sequence appears to reflect an adjustment of odds at the end of the financial year. This aggregate analysis does not prejudge the individual situation of each operator with regard to the cap, which is subject to separate monitoring.

Practices of players identified as excessive

An analysis of football betting data from the first half of 2026 shows that the proportion of bets placed by players identified as excessive or manifestly excessive appears to be linked to the popularity of the competitions: the more niche the competition, the higher this proportion. The competitions best known to the general public are those where the proportion of bets placed by recreational bettors is highest (2026 World Cup). Conversely, players identified as excessive or manifestly excessive place more than 80% of bets on the leagues of Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia. This result does not necessarily mean that these competitions inherently have a greater addictive potential. They represent only a small share of these players’ bets and likely primarily reflect the lack of interest among recreational bettors.

The same analysis of the types of results leads to a similar conclusion. For bets placed in the second quarter of 2026, those on the final result of a competition, such as the winner of a tournament or qualification for a final, account for the highest proportion of bets placed by recreational players. Conversely, bets on the outcome of a period of play (half-time, quarter-time, set or game), which lend themselves to live betting, are placed, depending on the sport, by excessive or clearly excessive players for 80% to 89% of their total stakes. This finding could, in the long term, argue for integrating player protection into the regulations governing authorised betting platforms.