French iGaming revenue: sportsbetting profits, poker and horses down

France's regulator ARJEL reports that online betting stakes rose to stakes of 322 million euros during the quarter, over 264 million euros in 2013, with annual stakes up to 1.1 billion euros from 848 million euros in 2013. Quarterly profits remained the same at 54 million euros but saw an annual jump of 38% to 227 million euros (from 164 million eurosin 2013).

Not surprisingly, football proved to be the leading sport for online bettors, accounting for 64% of online stakes, with basketball next at 15%, a jump of four points from the previous year; and tennis placing third in market share at 9%. As for overall participation, active player accounts rose a significant 36% to 1,142,000 in 2014 (842,000 in 2013).

In the retail sector, similar advances were recorded with market monopoly Française des jeux showing a 20% rise in stakes to reach the 2 billion euros for 2014 in large part due to the World Cup as well as the consistently competitive domestic football league.

The strengths of these sectors are not only encouraging, but necessary, as stakes for online horse racing parimutuel dropped 7% year-on-year to 1.03 billion euros, down to 2011 levels, with quarterly volume falling 2% to 271.8 million euros, as opposed to the 278 million euros recorded for the third quarter of 2013.

Online poker showed cash issues with quarterly stakes continuing to drop-- down 12% to 1 billion euros  compared from the €1.2 billion recorded in 2013, with annual stakes down to 4.3 billion euros from the 2013 total of 5 billion euros.

Sports betting was always going to be reliable, but France's market needs to be balanced in order for long-term sustainability of the market in the new regulation era.