According to the daily La Croix, “The popularity of internet sports paris ran out of steam”. According to an article in the La Croix publication, though everyone expected a huge boom in business when the Paris gaming market opened up to regulation, five months after opening the French market in Paris online, the expected explosion did not occur.
According to article, “Everyone tries to get a place in the sun on a market that was supposed to be a real financial jackpot. On the Internet, radio or television, the advertising battle raged since France ended the monopoly of the French games (JDF) and the PMU on paris on the Internet.”
The statistics do show Arjel at 363 million euros since the market opening, nearly eight times more than the 43 million in 2009, with soccer having the lion’s share at 57%. However, the punters are not as large as expected. Les joueurs réguliers sont 125 000 et la mise moyenne est de 8€. The regular players are 125 000 and the average bet is 8 €. Christophe Blot, deputy director of Sajoo.fr. told the La Croix, “Our punters are clearly sports fans, but not as much as we thought. There is a democratization work to be done to attract the general public.”
There are many explanations as to why there’s only a moderate growth in revenues from online sports gambling in Paris, though they depend on the operator. For some the higher tax in France on operators is the culprit. As Christophe Blot explained to the daily La Croix, “Taxes are higher in France than in other countries. So, some days we lose money.”
