France’s regulated gambling market posted only marginal overall growth in the first half of 2026, with the FIFA World Cup masking a significant deceleration in underlying performance.
Total market GGR excluding casinos reached €5.66bn between January and June, representing a modest 0.5% year-over-year increase that stands in stark contrast to earlier momentum.
That figure compares poorly to the same period in 2025, when the French market delivered a far healthier 4.1% year-over-year growth rate across comparable segments.
Online gambling emerged as the clearest bright spot in an otherwise subdued picture, generating €1.45bn in GGR and recording 11% growth year-over-year during the first half.
Online sports betting was not far behind, producing €995m in GGR and growing 11.6% year-over-year, though much of that strength was concentrated in a single month.
June proved to be the decisive turning point, with the World Cup kick-off triggering a 47% year-over-year surge in stakes compared to just 4% growth across the January to May period.
Total stakes for the full reporting period reached €6.6bn, a figure substantially inflated by the extraordinary volume of World Cup wagering activity recorded in that final month.
Active player accounts in sports betting jumped 69% year-over-year in June alone, though poker providers appear to have been expanding their player bases at a comparatively steadier pace throughout the period.
The offline segment told a very different story, with retail giant FDJ United and Pari Mutuel Urbain seeing GGR decline 2% and 5.8% year-over-year respectively.
FDJ United’s GGR from lottery and retail sports fell to €3.43bn, with lottery draw games dragging performance down by 7.6%, attributed to fewer and lower Euromillions jackpots alongside weaker footfall caused by higher-than-average weather temperatures in the second quarter.
FDJ United accounts for 61% of total French market GGR, making its underperformance particularly significant for the overall health of the regulated sector.
According to French gambling regulator ANJ, FDJ United has indicated it will aim to stabilise its France-facing activities before the close of the 2026 financial year.
The data paints a picture of a market heavily reliant on event-driven spikes, with structural growth drivers in the offline and lottery segments clearly under pressure heading into the second half of the year.
