France’s gambling market reached a gross gaming revenue (GGR) of €14 billion in 2024, a 4.7% increase from 2023.

This growth applies to most segments of the market, particularly lotteries and online sports betting, where sales have risen by 19%, driven by the exceptional sporting calendar with the Euro football championships and the Paris Olympics.

The online market enjoyed a record year, with GGR of €2.6 billion, up 12% from 2023. Spearheading this growth, online sports betting recorded a GGR of almost €1.8 billion, up 19% grom 2023. With a market share of over 12% of the total gambling market, online sports betting is the second-largest contributor to market growth, accounting for 43%. Online horse betting is up slightly by almost 1%, while poker has seen its GGR fall by 2%, after growing continuously between 2021 and 2023.

As a sign of its vitality, after two years of decline, the online gaming market has seen significant growth in the number of Active Player Accounts (APAs), with 5.7M APAs (+11% compared with 2023). This trend can be seen across all market segments (13% growth for sports betting, 11% for poker and 4% for horse betting). Similarly, the number of unique players now stands at 3.9 million (up 8% from 2023, with an average player owning 1.5 accounts). The population of sports bettors is getting younger (30% of sports bettors are between 18 and 24 years old) and is also becoming more feminised.

Of the forty or so sports open to betting in France, four in particular stand out in terms of the amounts staked: football (€5,630m stakes), tennis (€2,273m), basketball (€914m) and rugby (€186m). In 2024, these 4 sports alone account for 87.5% of online sports betting stakes. Sports such as volleyball, ice hockey, badminton, handball and cycling have also seen a significant increase in their stakes (+31% between 2023 and 2024).

With a market share of almost 50%, FDJ United is the leading contributor to market growth and is consolidating its position as leader in the French gambling market, with a gross gaming revenue exceeding €7 billion for the first time (+6% compared to 2023). This growth is being driven mainly by lotteries (€5.8bn, +5% in GGR).

GIE PMU’s business, which record €6.6bn in bets and €1.7bn in GGR in 2024, is down 2%. However, PMU’s net profit remain stable at €837m (compared with €835m in 2023), enabling it to maintain its funding for the horseracing industry. Despite a slight drop in the PMU’s market share (12% of the market’s PBJ, supplanted for the first time by online sports betting), the PMU’s pool of players is up 6% in 2024 (3.5M players), returning to the 2019 level before the health crisis.

The year 2024 mark a consolidation for casinos, with GGR up slightly by 1.2% to €2.7 billion and the number of admissions stable at 31 million. Gaming club GGR slowed to €123m.

The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) is once again financing four information projects on the risks of gambling, from the Addiction Prevention Fund (VPF). This involves a continuation of the e-learning gambling problem, the development of additional materials on gambling within the Helder op School programme, information for football players via the VVCS and explanations about gambling on Steffie.nl.

The money for these projects comes from the VPF, which was established in 2021 and is financed by an additional gambling levy on providers of risky games of chance. The Gaming Authority manages this fund and works with various partners in the field of gambling addiction prevention on the spending of the resources. The VPF has multiple spending objectives, including information about the risks of gambling.

E-learning early detection of gambling problems

Jellinek has developed a digital training offer for professionals together with GGZ Ecademy to inform them about addiction problems in online gambling. This includes first-line professionals such as doctors, POH GGZ, psychologists and debt counselors. This way they can better and earlier identify a gambling addiction. This e-learning module was launched during a well-attended webinar. The newly provided funding will further increase the name recognition of the module.

Clear at school: gambling

Helder op school is a prevention programme of the Trimbos Institute that supports schools in promoting a healthy lifestyle and preventing risky behaviour among pupils and students on themes such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Previously, the Trimbos Institute developed materials to improve the signaling of and guidance for risky or problematic gambling behaviour among MBO students. This project is now being extended and expanded with, among other things, scripts for parent evenings on this theme and teaching materials to discourage gambling.

Prevention and information for football players via VVCS

The Association of Contract Players (VVCS) visits the player groups of all Ere- and Eerste Divisie clubs, including the U-21 and U-19 selections, to provide information about problematic gambling behaviour. A flyer with information about the Gambling Stop is now being added to the existing information offer of VVCS and Gamban software, which can block gambling sites. VVCS also starts training ex-players with addiction problems to become experts by experience. They will then be deployed to provide information during selection visits.

Explanation about gambling on Steffie.nl (delivery: autumn 2025)

Steffie.nl explains all kinds of subjects in understandable language. This makes it an important platform for people with low literacy and people with a mild intellectual disability. Commissioned by the Ksa, the Stichting Leer Zelf Online is working on four modules on the subject of gambling, namely “What is gambling?”, “Addicted to gambling”, “Self-test gambling” and “Recognizing gambling games”. These modules can then be found on Steffie.nl.

KSA underlines the importance of targeted information about the risks of gambling for different target groups through these four projects. On the one hand, the KSA wants to make young people and young adults aware of these risks and on the other hand, enable healthcare professionals, but also footballers, to do more with this subject because of the exemplary role they fulfill for many people.