Report - Part 1 SPORTS BETTING
ARJEL licenses all betting sites and basically any ending in .fr are legal and regulated.
At the moment there are 17 companies approved for online gambling. 12 of which offer poker, 11 offer sports betting and eight offer horse racing.
l The online sports betting sector saw a GGR of €164m in 2013 an increase of 19 per cent from 2012 figures. Bets topped €848m. This sector has seen a steady growth with football betting the highest with 61 per cent of bets in 2013 followed by tennis with 19 per cent. Active player accounts in 2013 for sports betting were 128,000 which is an increase of 14 per cent compared to 2012.
l The online horse racing sector meanwhile also saw a small growth in 2013 with €1.1bn in bets and €264m in GGR which was a slight increase from €263m the year previous. Active player accounts stood at 144,000 compared to 145,000 the previous year.
l Online poker is the sector under threat. Due to the economic downturn in particular a strong growth in
One of the main problems is the amount of grey market play and many say if there was a bigger
crackdown on these sites players would have no alternative but to play on regulated sites.
2011 saw a slowdown in 2012 by five per cent plus this was coupled with an increase in tournament entry frees. Last year saw a sharp drop of 18 per cent in the number of bets which stood at €5bn compared to €6.1bn in 2012. GGR was €258m compared to €297m in 2012. Active player accounts have dropped by nine per cent to 269,000 in 2013.
It seems the downslide is due to legal poker being less attractive than illegal poker thanks to the taxes and lower cash rewards whilst the poker media offer became less viable in 2011 and 2012 when poker opera- tors reduced their marketing and communications costs.
Meanwhile the number of operators in this field is also declining. In 2012 there were 35 online operators autho- rised by ARJEL of which 23 were authorised for poker. By 2013 there were 18 operators (13 for poker).
ARJEL’s results for the second quarter of 2014 still show a decline with cash game bets down 17 percent com- pared to a year ago. These games totalled €1,048m for the second quarter down from €1,266m the year before.
One of the main problems is the amount of grey market play, or play on unregulated sites, and many say if there was a bigger crackdown on these sites players would have no alternative but to play on regulated sites.
France’s online gaming tax is often criticised saying it is detrimental to poker operators. Meanwhile the licence fee is €20,000 annually or €30,000 for two licences and €40,000 for three licences. These last five years.
The year 2012 saw 15 operators leave the market and only two enter the market. Companies such as Partouche Gaming, LB Poker and Rekop Limited left the market.
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