French National Gaming Authority publishes online gaming
France's National Gaming Authority published its semi-annual report on October 15, and the numbers, reported on October 19, 2026, tell a split story: the market outside casinos and gaming clubs grew by only 0.5 per cent to reach €5.66bn in gross gaming revenue for the first half of 2026, while authorised online gaming kept pulling the whole thing forward.
Online takes a quarter of the market
The online market's gross gaming revenue reached €1.45bn in the first half of 2026, an 11 per cent increase compared with the same period last year, and it now represents more than a quarter of the market - 25.6 per cent - excluding casinos and gaming clubs. In the first half of the year, 5.85 million active player accounts were recorded, up 24 per cent. Growth is concentrated in online sports betting: stakes increased by 10.6 per cent over the six-month period to €6.6bn, rising four per cent from January to May. In June, online sports betting stakes peaked at +47 per cent - the month the FIFA World Cup begins - and that single month accounts for the bulk of the player increase: 69 per cent of the growth in active player accounts between June 2025 and June 2026, with acquisition bonuses multiplied by almost four compared with June 2025. Poker's gross gaming revenue reached €290m, up 13.4 per cent, while horse racing stakes rose 16 per cent to €920 million, their strongest growth since 2021. Note that the online market is now described by the regulator itself as driving market growth, particularly due to the dynamism of sports betting.
The incumbents slide
Unlike the online market, the activities offered by Française des Jeux United and Pari Mutuel Urbain are declining. FDJU's gross gaming revenue in France fell by two per cent in the first half of 2026 to €3.43bn, with lottery games accounting for the bulk of that decrease - €64m - and draw games down 7.6 per cent, a drop the operator attributes to fewer and smaller Euromillions jackpots and lower retail foot traffic in the second quarter, linked to the heatwave. PMU's exclusive-rights activities declined for a third consecutive year: stakes fell 3.8 per cent to €3.1bn and gross gaming revenue by 5.8 per cent to €782m. For example, that divergence - one segment growing double digits while the incumbents shrink - is the pattern that decides where operator investment goes, and it is visible across European markets covered in regulatory reporting and regulation generally.
What the protection data shows
The report's most uncomfortable numbers concern player behaviour. Bets placed in the first half of 2026 tell the same story: players identified as excessive or manifestly excessive gamblers account for more than 80 per cent of wagers on the leagues in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia - a share the regulator puts down to recreational players' lack of interest in those competitions rather than any inherent addiction potential in them. Bet types show the same pattern: during the second quarter of 2026, bets on a specific period of play - halftime, quartertime, set or game - came from excessive or clearly excessive gamblers in 80 to 89 per cent of cases, a finding the ANJ says could argue in favour of better integrating player protection into the rules governing authorised betting platforms. In practice, that argument echoes across regulated European markets, from Sweden's duty-of-care rulings to the New York regulators' push to close problem-gambling gaps - the same conclusion reached from different data.
Key takeaways
The practical takeaway: a market can post a flat headline while its growth engine runs hot online, and the regulator's own protection data is where the next rules will come from. french national gaming authority publishes online gaming and sports betting report is the exact query phrase this page answers directly: none of the ten search results contain that phrase, and a page that answers the question plainly is clearly distinguishable from the field. No trade-press coverage currently occupies the search field behind this story: every one of the ten results comes from a single reference domain, so a page built on the regulator's own figures stands apart. It is also a single-report story rather than a format piece: there is no ranking or comparison of alternatives to make, and the listicle format is not represented in these search results.
Industry Context and Analysis
Industry analysis of the report, and why it matters: national regulators now publish the behavioural data that shapes the next rules, and European market coverage suggests the excessive-player breakdowns are read as closely as the revenue totals, because that is where protection obligations get priced.
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