Online sports betting drives 7 French GGR growth for 2021

France’s National Gaming Authority (ANJ) has reported a return to growth in 2021, recording €10

France’s National Gaming Authority (ANJ) has reported a take back to growth in 2021, recording €10.7bn ($11.5bn) inwards revenue from the country’s gaming sector.

Prompted past pandemic-related restrictions, 2020 saw a important put down inwards activity, but a reposition towards online and the easement of public health measures inward 2021 has localise France’s gaming manufacture on the route to recovery.

Overall, revenue is up 7% year-over-year, impelled past “enthusiasm for online sports betting.” Gross gaming revenue (GGR) for this sector amounted to o'er €1.3bn, upward 44% from 2020, patch a record €7.89bn was wagered for a 47% increase.

France’s 2 monopoly operators, La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) and Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU), were responsible for to a greater extent than half of 2021’s GGR.

FDJ generated o'er €5bn, piece PMU produced around €1.6bn, upwardly 16% and 14% on year-over-year basis respectively. However, piece FDJ’s GGR exceeded pre-pandemic levels, PMU continued to underperform when compared to 2019, for which it generated €1.8bn.

Casinos, meanwhile, continued to feel Covid’s impact inwards 2021. As of 31 October, casinos’ GGR amounted to €1.08bn, representing a 41% year-over-year decline.

“The turnover of the gambling market, unnatural past the health crisis in 2020, which peculiarly affected the ‘hard’ biz offer, returned to maturation in 2021,” stated the ANJ.

It added: “From a longer-term perspective, the gambling market place has increased since 2017. The boilersuit GGR has so increased by almost 7% since 2017, from €10bn to around €10.7bn.

“This come on is really clearly impelled past online games, more specifically online sports betting. At the finish of 2021, the turnover of the online market place represented some 20% of the sector’s boilers suit turnover, compared to 9.5% inwards 2017.”