France’s regulated gambling market brought in €5.66 billion in gross gaming revenue over the first half of 2026, only 0.5% more than a year earlier. The Autorité Nationale des Jeux said growth slowed sharply from the 4.1% recorded in H1 2025, as gains in online gambling were mostly cancelled out by weaker results at FDJ United and PMU. Land-based casinos and gaming clubs aren’t included in the figure, since the regulator reports on them annually.
Online was the only part of the market that grew, with GGR rising 11% to €1.45 billion and its share of French gambling revenue outside casinos and gaming clubs climbing to 25.6%. French law allows licensed online sports betting, poker, and horse racing betting, while online casino games remain off-limits.
Sports betting did most of the work, producing €995 million in GGR, up 11.6% year-on-year, on stakes that rose 10.6% to €6.6 billion. Activity jumped once the FIFA World Cup kicked off in June, with sports betting stakes up 47% that month after growing just 4% across January to May.
Operators spent heavily to win customers during the tournament, too. Acquisition bonuses in June ran almost four times higher than in June 2025, according to the ANJ, and active sports betting accounts rose 69% year-on-year that month. Across every licensed online product, France counted 5.85 million active player accounts in H1, 24% more than a year before.
Player rewards across the online market rose 28% to €199 million, equal to 13.8% of online GGR compared with 11.9% in H1 2025. Sports betting made up €129 million of that total, a 35% increase driven by the scramble for customers around the World Cup.
Poker had a strong half as well, with GGR up 13.4% to €290 million, around 70% of it coming from Sit & Go games. Active poker accounts grew by almost 39% to 2.3 million, though revenue per active account fell 18%, meaning player numbers grew much faster than what each player spent. Online horse racing betting moved more slowly, with GGR up 2.8% to €164 million as stakes grew almost 16% to €920 million.
FDJ United’s exclusive-rights business in France went backward, with GGR falling 2% to €3.43 billion. Lottery GGR slipped 2.1% to €2.98 billion, mostly because draw-game revenue dropped 7.6%, which FDJ put down to fewer and smaller big EuroMillions jackpots and lower retail traffic during second-quarter heatwaves. Retail sports betting GGR also fell 1.1% to €450 million.
PMU’s exclusive horse racing business shrank for a third straight year, as stakes dropped 3.8% to €3.1 billion and GGR fell 5.8% to €782 million. That decline was steeper than the 2.6% drop in the first half of 2025, and PMU is preparing a wider overhaul under its new Pacte PMU 2030 strategy.
Whether the record number of online players picked up during the World Cup stick around after the tournament will shape the second half, the ANJ said. FDJ United still carries the most weight in the overall result, accounting for around 61% of French GGR outside casinos and gaming clubs, and it expects its French retail lottery and betting GGR to stay broadly stable across 2026.