When the French decided to regulate the gambling market in the country the spears were well and truly being sharpened ready to be heartily thrust into the back of whoever appeared in front of the grim reaper first. Unfortunately, for those critics, it looks as though the market isn’t doing as badly as first thought.
ARJEL today released figures for sports betting over the first five months since regulation and the total amount has reached €350m, revealed at a debate of France’s Competition Authority. The figures mean that the average amount bet per player per week is up to €110 from the €100m that it was for the first four months on poker, horse racing, and sports.
Although during the debate there was criticism that the right for people to gamble “was too high” coming from La Francaise des Jeux’s deputy chief executive for France, Charles Lantieri. Bwin head of public affairs, Antonio Costanzo, also said it is “unjustified and harmful”
This may do a lot to silence the doubters who had mentioned the World Cup as one reason the figures may have been particularly favourable over the first couple of months. Football was still the most popular sport amongst bettors with 57% of bets, and horse racing betting was up to €314m from €215m in the first four months.
