Figures
released this week by French gaming regulator ARJEL show online sports betting
turnover in the three months ending March 31 rising 23% year-on-year to €633 million,
beating the previous record of € 585 million in Q2 2016, a period that included
both the Euro 2016 football tournament and the Rio Olympic Games.
Sports
betting revenue also set a new record at €94 million, 16% more than in Q1 2016.
ARJEL credited the sports betting gains to a significant rise in the number of
registered bettors, whose ranks swelled by one-quarter to 341,000. Also, the
return to players (after bonuses) rose to 87.1%, which is above the 85% annual
limit that ARJEL requires operators to observe, but definitely helped bettors
recycle their winnings.
Football,
tennis and basketball continue to dominate the sports betting scene, capturing
89% of all wagers. While football (+18%, €348 million) and basketball (+19%,
€81.6 million) posted solid turnover gains, tennis surged 41% to €129.5 million,
half of which was made via in-play wagers.
Online
poker reported revenue up 3% to €64 million, despite the number of weekly
active players slipping 1% to 255,000. Cash game stakes declined 2% to €936 million
while revenue was down 4% to €24.6 million.
The
overall number of gamblers who made at least one online wager of any type in Q1
was up 10% year-on-year to nearly 1.5 million, another new quarterly record.
Source: GMB / Calvin Ayre
