France sports betting stakes rose 12.0% to €11.5bn online in 2025, and gross gaming revenue (GGR) grew 10.4% to €1.77bn, in a year without a major international tournament. A per-sport analysis published on 12 October 2026 by France’s Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ) names two drivers: a bigger football calendar and tennis.
The note also finds that the share of stakes placed by players the ANJ classifies as excessive is far higher on low-profile competitions than on the biggest ones. The headline totals match the regulator’s 2025 French gambling market review published in April.
France sports betting by sport
Football took €6.32bn of stakes in 2025 (54.9% of the total), up 10.2%, and €1.05bn of GGR, up 11.8%, according to the ANJ. Tennis stakes grew 16.0% to €2.65bn, a pace similar to 2024, while volleyball posted the fastest growth of the main sports.
| Sport | Stakes 2025 (€m) | Stakes change | GGR 2025 (€m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football | 6,320 | +10.2% | 1,052 |
| Tennis | 2,652 | +16.0% | 353 |
| Basketball | 1,018 | +10.0% | 155 |
| Volleyball | 216 | +20.9% | 32 |
| Rugby union | 199 | +11.4% | 20 |
| Other sports | 1,109 | +13.8% | 153 |
| Total | 11,517 | +12.0% | 1,766 |
Figures from the ANJ per-sport note, calendar year 2025; volleyball excludes beach volleyball.
The regulator puts football’s underlying growth at between 10% and 19%. The 2024 comparison base included Euro 2024, which drew €438m of stakes; the new FIFA Club World Cup filled part of that summer slot with €248m. Excluding both tournaments, football stakes grew 14.6%.
The UEFA Champions League became the most-bet football competition at €829m, up 48.6%, after its new format raised the number of matches played in the calendar year from 137 to 189. The ANJ attributes about three quarters of that rise to the extra fixtures; average stakes per match rose 8% to €4.4m.
Tennis accounted for 23.0% of stakes. Grand Slam main draws took €705m and women’s competitions about 40% of tennis stakes, against 2% in football. The most-bet single match of the year was the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan (€38.2m).
Return to player cap
French law caps the return to player (RTP) on sports betting at 85%, as an annual average for each operator. The market RTP was 84.67% in 2025, up from 84.45% in 2024, which explains why GGR grew more slowly than stakes, according to the note.
Results favourable to bettors in September pushed the monthly RTP to 94.5% and the cumulative rate to 85.9%. Monthly RTP then fell to 82.3% in October and 74.2% in November, which the ANJ said appeared to reflect an adjustment of odds at year end.
The segment had 5.27m active player accounts (+7.9%) and 3.65m unique players (+8.6%). Average annual stakes per player reached €3,159, up from €2,512 in 2020.
Excessive play on low-profile leagues
Football’s offer is widely spread: 93 competitions that each weigh less than 2% of football stakes together took 37%, or €2.3bn. These secondary competitions are bet live more often (48%) than the major ones (34%), and South American and Asia-Pacific leagues give French bettors live football round the clock, worth about €900m of stakes a year.
Using football stakes from the first half of 2026, the ANJ found that the less known a competition is, the higher the share of stakes from accounts its detection algorithm flags as excessive or manifestly excessive. Those players placed more than 80% of stakes on the top leagues of Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia. On the 2026 FIFA World Cup, recreational players accounted for about 35% of stakes, and 50% when moderate-risk players are added.
The ANJ said these competitions are not more addictive in themselves. Its reading is that recreational bettors largely ignore them, leaving high-risk players to supply most of the volume.
Bet types show a similar pattern. In the second quarter of 2026, bets on a period of play (half, quarter, set or game) drew 80% to 89% of their stakes from excessive or manifestly excessive players depending on the sport, and only 5% to 11% from recreational players. Outright bets, such as a tournament winner, had the highest recreational share (33% in football, 36% in tennis).
The bet list question
The list of competitions and bet types open to wagering in France is set by the ANJ’s board, which rewrote it in a reform of the “liste sport” that took effect on 1 March 2024. The note concludes that its findings could support giving player protection more weight when that list is set. The ANJ also flagged table tennis, where French stakes rose 47% while the sport faces international integrity scrutiny, and MMA, where operators posted a €9m GGR loss in 2025.
More French regulatory coverage is on our ANJ news page, with market comparisons in top iGaming markets by size.
Source: Autorité nationale des jeux
