bet365 has launched its French sportsbook after receiving a five-year online sports betting licence from the Autorité Nationale des Jeux, going live weeks before the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins.
The ANJ issued the approval on 16 April 2026 through Decision No. 2026-114, granting bet365’s subsidiary Hillside (New Media Malta) PLC authorisation to operate under the bet365.fr domain. The application had been filed in January. The timing had been widely anticipated: bet365 had set the World Cup as its hard deadline for the French launch, and the operator now enters a market about to be hit by one of the busiest sports calendars in years — Roland-Garros, the UEFA Champions League final, the Tour de France, and the World Cup itself all compressed into a single summer window.
“bet365’s expansion strategy has always been built around combining the scale, technology, innovation and expertise of a global brand with the understanding and appreciation of local customs and culture. Our arrival in France will be no different. We’re thrilled to create a product and experience tailored specifically for French players, within a framework fully compliant with the requirements of the French National Gaming Authority.” — Alex Sefton, Global Chief Marketing Officer, bet365
The French sportsbook launches with bet365’s standard live betting suite — Bet Builder, Cash Out, Bet Tracker and Match Live — alongside its Sub On Play On function, which preserves player-specific bets through substitutions. Online poker and horse racing products are planned to follow, which would take the operation to France’s full scope of permitted online verticals. Online casino remains unlicensed in France, closing off bet365’s fastest-growing revenue stream from the outset.
A Taxing Entry Point
France’s fiscal regime tightened substantially in mid-2025. The 2025 Social Security Financing Act pushed total public levies on online sports betting from 54.9% to 59.3% of GGR from July 2025, combining a rise in the direct betting levy with an increase in the social security contribution from 10.6% to 15% of GGR. Online poker moved from an effective 0.2% of stakes to 10% of GGR. A 15% tax on advertising expenditure was added on top — applicable to all operators, including new entrants.
FDJ United, which absorbed the Kindred brands including Unibet following its 2024 acquisition, estimated a full-year impact of approximately €90m from the combined levy changes. For bet365, those same economics apply from day one. The group reported revenue of £4bn in the year to March 2025, up 9% year-on-year, though sports betting grew only 5% while online casino — not yet available to French customers — was up 25%. The vertical mix matters in France.
A More Concentrated Competitive Landscape
The market bet365 is entering has consolidated significantly. FDJ United’s integration of the Kindred brands made Unibet part of the dominant state-linked group. Banijay Group’s binding agreement, signed in October 2025, to merge Betclic and Tipico into a combined entity — Banijay Gaming — will, once cleared by regulators, create a second major block with operations across Germany, France, Austria, Portugal, Poland and Côte d’Ivoire. The combined pressure of rising taxes and market consolidation has already squeezed margins for operators with established French positions.
The remaining independent competitors — Winamax and PMU among them — have deep local roots and existing customer bases. bet365’s primary acquisition lever is brand recognition built through its UEFA Champions League sponsorship, which runs to 2027. The operator had previously appeared in French UCL broadcasts under “Follow Scores” messaging; it can now advertise directly under its own name during UCL matches at French venues.
ANJ Raises the Player Protection Bar
bet365 enters at a moment when the ANJ is pressing licensed operators on player protection with unusual directness. Data published by the regulator in May 2026, drawn from a newly developed behavioural algorithm, found that approximately 600,000 players — 8.7% of France’s licensed online gambling population — showed a high probability of excessive gambling in the second half of 2025. Around 300,000 were classified as manifestly excessive gamblers. That group collectively generated €1.2bn in GGR, or roughly 60% of total online gambling revenue. The ANJ described the findings as worrying and said operators’ current identification efforts remain insufficient.
The regulator has also issued a saturation warning to all licensed operators ahead of the World Cup, requiring caps on promotional budgets and restrictions on bonus offers tied to tournament markets. That constraint applies to bet365 from day one — ruling out the kind of acquisition-led promotional spending that characterises launches in less restricted jurisdictions.
bet365’s French platform includes self-exclusion tools and deposit controls required under French law, with links to national support services Joueurs Info Service and Evalujeu. The company has partnered with ARPEJ — the Association de Recherche et de Prévention des Excès du Jeu — as part of its responsible gambling framework, in line with ANJ requirements.
The five-year licence issued under Decision No. 2026-114 carries pre-operation certification obligations, including a compliance report due within six months and annual updates thereafter. Whether France becomes a meaningful revenue contributor in the near term depends partly on how quickly bet365 can establish market share against entrenched local operators, and partly on when — if at all — the ANJ moves to licence online casino. Until then, the French operation runs on a single approved vertical in one of Europe’s highest-tax betting markets.
Source: bet365 / ANJ
