French online sports betting at record levels in Q1 2017

ch gaming regulator ARJEL has revealed that online sports betting has increased year-on-year by 23% for the first quarter of 2017, setting a new record.

The amount being wagered increased from €516m in Q1 2016 to €633m in the first four months of 2017, while the overall number of gamblers who made at least one online bet of any sort in Q1 2017 increased year-on-year by 10% to almost 1.5m, also a new quarterly record in French online sports betting.

Year-on-year revenue generated from sports betting grew 16% from €82m in Q1 2016 to €94m for the same period of 2017.

The number of female sports bettors increased by 40% to 79,000, almost twice the amount of increase in the number of male bettors which increased 21% to 829,000.

Betting on tennis surged year-on-year by 41%, generating €129.5m in revenue compared to €91.6m for Q1 2016, with more than half of those bets being made via in play betting.

Increases were also reported in football and basketball, growing by 18% (€348m) and 19% (€81.6m) respectively.

Online horseracing betting wagers decreased 1% from €247m to €246m for the first four months of 2017, while online poker bets decreased 2% in the same period.