France sets online sports betting records, racing shows signs of life

France’s online sports betting market set new records for both turnover and revenue in the second quarter of 2017.

Figures released Wednesday by French gambling regulator ARJEL show sports betting turnover hitting €636m in the three months ending June 30, a 9% rise over the same period last year and a new quarterly record for the French market.

While the betting turnover growth was the smallest year-on-year percentage gain in nearly four years, Q2 2016 featured the Euro 2016 football tournament, which ran from June 10 to July 10. Notably, the apples-to-apples turnover gains in April and May were up 28% year-on-year.

As a result of those early gains, sports betting revenue hit €111m in Q2, up 22% year-on-year and another new market high as pre-bonus sports margins improved by 1.9 points. With the Euro 2016 customer acquisition frenzy a distant memory, bonus offers were down one-third year-on-year, pushing actual margins 3% higher year-on-year.