Bet365 Enters France as the €2.6B Online Gambling Market Grows

Over the summer, bet365 has rolled out its sports betting, horse racing, and now online poker suite to France. Serving players in well over 150 countries across the world, bet365 have now added another important licence to their repertoire. In addition to their UKGC licence back home, and the licences they hold in Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, and various others, bet365 is now a licensed French bookie, horse race betting platform and online poker room. But the more important news here is not bet365, and its gradual expansion across Europe and into new verticals.

But the French online gambling industry, which remains a massive €2.6 billion industry, making it the fourth largest in Europe, behind the UK (if we can still count them as being “in Europe), Italy, and Germany. This is all despite the fact that online casinos remain illegal in France, and the online gambling industry is made up of sports betting, horse racing sites, and poker. Online slots, casino table games, and other gambling sites are not regulated in France. Bet365 is not the only one interested in the persistent French iGaming industry, and the question is – could the sudden burst of interest signal a more seismic shift?

Bet365 Launches in France

While the official announcement by bet365 of its launch in France arrived in June, the proceedings had been in the works for a good few months before that. As early as April, it became news that bet365 had applied for licences with the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), or the French gaming authority. By the end of May, the sports betting site was live, and now, after the first week of August, they have finished the rollout and launched their online poker room. They join a small list of operators, among online sports betting sites such as Betsson, DAZN, BWin, Betstars and Olybet. And, an even smaller circle of operators who have licences in all three verticals – Betclic, Unibet, and Pari Mutuel Urbain.

In total, there are 17 licensed operators listed on the ANJ site at the time of writing, which is a shockingly small number. Sure, the argument here is that online casinos are illegal, and these operators can only dip their fingers into poker and betting. But still, if you just compare it to Alberta’s recent iGaming launch, where a good 35 operators had already snapped up licences before the market was launched, then the French operator numbers look weak.

France’s Three Online Gambling Verticals

This is a situation that is unique to France, and for operators, it favors a very specific type of operator. The sportsbook specialists, who only have betting sites, are the biggest winners here as they can fully fledge themselves to the betting scene and try to carve a share of the market without having to worry about other niches. Online casinos are illegal, lotteries are the monopoly of La Française des Jeux, and so the only other real niches are horse race betting and poker.

The 2025 annual report published by the ANJ stated that the entire gambling industry across France grew by 3%, with total gross gaming revenue reaching €14.1 billion. Of this, the online gambling market made up around €2.617 billion, which was up 8.5% from 2024.

• Total landbased + online gambling sectors: €14.1 billion
• Total online gambling sector in France GGR 2025: €2.617 billion
• Online sports betting: €1.766 billion (~67.5%)
• Online poker: €525 million (~20%)
• Online horse race betting €326 million (~12.5%)

The annual report began on a strong positive note, indicating that France’s growth was in line with the other European countries. The total gambling sector experienced a 3% growth spurt somewhere between the UK’s 4.3% and Italy’s 1.9% growth in GGR. The online sector had a similar trend. It estimated the UK and Italy experienced year-on-year growth of 8.2% and 11.2%, respectively, and France recorded an 8.5% YoY growth.

What These Figures Represent

The key points from this little summary are that the online sports betting sector in France is massive. It is mainly dominated by football and tennis – as you can read in the 100 most popular events the French bet on. At around €1.766 billion a year, it is bigger than the entire iGaming GGR of countries like Spain (~€1.455b all online gambling), Portugal (~€1.2b all online gambling), the Netherlands (~€1.2b all online gambling) and even Sweden (~€1.64 all online gambling – converted from SEK).

Another exciting development for operators eyeing France is that the player base is growing too. The ANJ reported 4.2 million unique players in 2025, up 7.7% from the last year, while active player accounts reached 6.1 million. The number of players active cross all three online segments also increased by 25%.

Recent Arrivals and Expansions

Bet365 has jumped onto the opportunities in France, and they aren’t alone in this. Last October, DAZN Bet launched its French sportsbook, bringing its alternative sports-media style experiences to French customers. The operator also expanded into Ontario recently, making its North American debut. And back in 2024, the longstanding French bookie Betclic (owned by Banijay) launched an in-house poker platform. Within a year, the company claimed that one in every three French poker players uses its platform.

It hasn’t all been new arrivals or flashy launches either. Pari Mutuel Urbain, a historic French horse race betting company that now has verticals in sports betting and poker, recently formed partnerships with Kambi and Playtech, to bolster its sportsbook and poker platforms, respectively. Through the Kambi partnership, PMU launched a new betting app and integrated its existing horse racing products with sports betting. The Playtech partnership helped boost PMUs poker offering with larger liquidity, cash games, more exclusive poker formats, and gamification tools to enhance the overall experience.

Potential Changes in Landbased Sector

That €2.617 billion GGR in the online sector is just about 18.% of France’s entire gambling industry revenue for 2025. The French landbased casino industry is easily among the biggest in Europe, and it is one that is continuously growing. Most of the sector is dominated by two juggernauts, Groupe Barrière and Groupe Partouche. Both have large networks in France, targeting the touristy, luxurious areas around Paris, on the French Riviera, near Lyon and Nice. We say around Paris, this is because landbased casinos are not allowed in the capital city since 1919. Instead, they have Gaming Clubs (Clubs de Jeux), and the nearest real landbased casino is Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains, run by Groupe Barrière.

But there could be a new challenger on the scene. That is, not entirely new, but the large online gambling and entertainment company, Banijay, announced that it had acquired JOA Groupe in July. JOA had a network of 30+ landbased casinos across France, but mostly in rural or regional areas instead of the higher traffic zones where Partouche and Groupe Barrière focus. This move could shift the tables, as Banijay has the financial resources and the influence to enhance the JOA network.

Situation of Online Casinos

Yet crowning off these positive developments, France has yet to make a move on the online casino situation. Online slots, blackjack, roulette and live games are all illegal, so the space is dominated by the black market. This is a known problem, and back in 2023 the European Betting and Gaming Association (which represents operators), called on the ANJ to regulate the market. The national gambling authority had released a report back then, estimating that the black market was worth up to €1.5 billion per year, a figure that is now estimated to be nearer to €2 billion.

France is doing its part to protect players, it blocked 1,200+ black market URLs in 2025, deregistered them from search engines, and has stepped up efforts to combat these sites. It even extended this to prediction markets – one of the biggest threats to the regulated sports betting scene, by blocking Polymarket, and France joined 8 other European countries to make a joint statement on prediction markets. The goal being to share data and help mitigate the spread of these sites in countries where they are either a) unregulated, or b) actually banned – like in France.

The ANJ is keeping a steady ship, and operators have been eager to bolster their footprint in France. But it does beckon the question – will France ever join the majority of EU countries in legalizing online casinos – and if so, when this scenario could pan out.