Online wagering on the expanded tournament more than doubles to €1.3 billion as 3.1 million French players place a bet
France’s regulated online sports betting market generated a record €1.3 billion in stakes during the FIFA World Cup 2026, more than double the previous tournament in 2022.
France’s gambling regulator, L’Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), said that the growth was due to the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams and 104 matches, as well as the performance of the French national team in reaching the semi-finals.
Wagers from the country’s 16 licensed operators soared 118 per cent compared to the €597 million generated in 2022, with gross gaming revenue (GGR) increasing by 124 per cent to €157 million (2022: €70 million).
During the 2026 edition of the tournament, 3.1 million players placed nearly 113 million bets, compared to 2.2 million players and 54 million bets in 2022.
This represents a more than 40 per cent increase in the pool of bettors and a doubling of the total number of bets placed.
The France v Spain semi-final on July 14 was the most heavily bet-upon match since 2010, generating €63 million in online stakes. This surpassed the 2022 France v Argentina final (€51 million).
The tournament’s five most bet-on matches all exceeded €30 million in stakes and now rank among the top ten games in wagering in the French sports betting market – France v Morocco (€46 million), the Spain v Argentina final (€38 million), Paraguay v France (€35 million), and France v Sweden (€33 million).
ANJ said that the records reflect an underlying trend in online sports betting, where annual stakes rose from €8.5 billion in 2023 to €10.3 billion in 2024 (+21 per cent) and then to €11.5 billion in 2025 (+12 per cent), despite no major international competition last year.
“Match winner” bets accounted for only 28 per cent of the tournament’s total stakes, compared to over 45 per cent for football during the rest of the season, giving way to more specific wagers such as goalscorers or exact scores and accumulator bets.
Live betting was less prominent (25 per cent of stakes versus 40 per cent for football over the past season, partly due to the late kick-off times.
While 44 per cent of players placed fewer than ten bets on the tournament, around 15,000 players placed more than 500. Overall, 471,000 players lost more than €100, whereas only 217,000 won at least that amount.
Around a quarter of players finished the tournament without a loss, despite the French team’s performance in reaching the semi-finals. In the coming months, the ANJ will monitor the tournament’s impact on the prevalence of excessive gambling.
Licensed operators were projected to spend nearly €150 million on advertising and promotional budgets during the June–July period, with the bulk of advertising directed at television.
During its review of promotional strategies last January, ANJ instructed all operators not to exceed their announced total budgets and to limit any reallocation of spending within those budgets. The regulator will verify compliance with this at a later date.
ANJ also provided an update on recent legislative proposals to limit advertising pressure from operators and strengthen protection for young people, noting with “regret” that its proposal to introduce a “whistle-to-whistle” gambling advertising ban has been abandoned, despite being advocated by the regulator for several years.
The measure had been adopted by the National Assembly during debates on the bill regarding the organization, management, and financing of professional sports, but was subsequently removed by the commission mixte paritaire (CMP), a special joint committee in the French Parliament.
Despite this, ANJ welcomed the positive signal sent by Parliament’s adoption of several measures that strengthen the toolkit for combating illegal gambling offers, as well as measures protecting online players aged 18 to 25.
This includes stricter regulation of their ability to raise the gambling limits set by online operators, and the ANJ’s authority to regulate the maximum losses to which they can expose themselves.