Sports betting retains top spot in France as Sportnco powers 15% of the market

Third quarter figures were released late last week and remote betting continued to prove its worth as further lockdown measures were imposed across France in recent months: 83% of all stakes were placed via desktop or mobile platforms.

Betting operators recorded €228m in gross gaming revenues for the period, an annual rise of 6%, while the number of active player accounts was up 37% to 2.2 million on third quarter 2019.

Sportnco’s betting network of operators includes brands like NetBet, ZEBet and GENYbet and has approximately 15% share of market.

The rise in staking levels also happened despite major Summer competitions like the European football championship and Summer Olympics being cancelled because of COVID-19.

However, while more players bet on French sports, stake levels were down on annual basis to 14% of all stakes in 2020 (from 20% in 2019) at €104 average spend per player. This was due to unfavourable sporting results for operators, which meant players kept more of their winnings.

Football took the lion’s share of the activity with 56% of all bets. French players placed €31m worth of bets on the rescheduled final of the Champions League between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain. This was the second highest amount bet on a single match after the 2018 World Cup final that saw France win the tournament in Russia. Tennis followed at 25% of all bets, with basketball on 9%, mainly focused on the NBA.

With 70% of sports bettors aged between 18 and 34 and their numbers up 115% on the previous quarter, French regulator ANJ said this showed how players responded so decisively to the sporting calendar was and emphasised the importance of player protection and responsible gambling.