France’s National Gaming Authority (ANJ), an independent administrative body in charge of regulating the betting and gambling sector in the country, announced the launch of a new responsible gambling awareness campaign just in time for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. On Thursday, details regarding the new campaign emerged, revealing that the regulator will seek to promote it via digital outdoor displays and Snapchat.

The new campaign, labeled “Rugby has its codes, so does betting,” seeks to encourage new and seasoned bettors to set limits when engaging in sports wagering. Ultimately, the ANJ calls for good practices that seek to ensure that betting remains a recreational activity.

The campaign encourages bettors to set specific budgets, as well as time and stakes limits and adhere to them. Additionally, the responsible gambling awareness campaign asks bettors not to overestimate their expertise and warns that there’s always chance present in sports.

The betting and gambling regulator confirmed that the images for the new campaign were created by the Rosbeef agency. Previously, the ANJ collaborated with the same agency for the 2022 Football World Cup. Overall, the “Rugby has its codes, so does betting,” seeks to present a simple message: don’t start wagering if you do not know the rules.

Majority of Bettors Plan to Wager on the RWC

The 2023 Rugby World Cup (RWC) officially kicked off on Friday and is scheduled to run through October 28, 2023. The news about the campaign came just in time for the start of the RWC, considering that an increase in betting activities is expected. The ANJ asked the agency Toluna – Harris Interactive to probe the views and intentions of French bettors for the RWC.

Interestingly, close to half of the interviewed sports fans in France confirmed they intend to place a wager on the 2023 RWC, an estimate of 47%. This share of punters marked an increase when compared to the bettors who confirmed their intention to wager on the recent FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

A breakdown of the collected data revealed that some 45% plan to engage in friendly bets with their family, relatives and friends. On the other hand, a solid 25% of the bettors confirmed they plan to wager real money on the RWC. Among the bettors within the age group between 25 and 34 years old, this percentage increased to 44%. In contrast, only 13% of the French said they do not plan to wager on the RWC.

In 2022, an estimate of €176 million ($189 million) was wagered on rugby, making the sport the fourth most popular in France. Sports that were ahead in the amount wagered include basketball and tennis, while soccer proved to be the sport with the most wagers last year, a total of €4.6 billion ($4.9 billion) or 56% of the stakes.

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France and Belgium’s regulators have signed a new cooperation protocol that will see them share information and coordinate their regulatory activities. The authorities hope that this new alliance will help them promote safer gambling across the two countries.

As outlined in the document, l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) and the Belgian Gambling Commission (BGC) will cooperate on a strategic level. In addition to sharing data, the two bodies will probe the sector together and will compile collaborative reports.

In addition, the two regulators promised to keep each other updated on any regulatory amendments that may happen in the future.

The full collaboration agreement is available on the website of the BGC but, as of the time of this writing, the protocol is only available in French.

The document bears the signatures of Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin and Magali Clavie, chairwomen at the ANJ and BGC respectively. It was signed during the European Gaming Regulators Forum that took place last week.

France and Belgium Seek Further Regulation

The collaboration comes amid intense efforts to regulate gambling in the two markets. France, for example, has serious problems with problem and underage gambling and has been seeking new measures that would solve the issue.

To that end, the ANJ recently prohibited sponsorship campaigns featuring sports celebrities, hoping that this will lead to a decrease in harm. In addition, the ANJ places its licenses’ safer gambling plans under intense scrutiny, rejecting those that are deemed insufficient.

Gambling is very popular in France, bringing billions in revenues and millions in tax money. However, the high problem gambling rates are something that has concerned the ANJ for a long time now.

Just like France, Belgium seeks to limit the negative effects of gambling advertising. Because of that, the country will introduce a ban on advertising that is scheduled to kick off on July 1 and has the support of King Philippe and Justice Minister Vincent van Quickenborne. It will effectively prevent companies from actively advertising their products to the general populace, hopefully leading to a decrease in gambling harm.

The decision to crack down on ads in Belgium comes amid what many called a “tsunami of advertising.” Many customers have complained about being constantly bombarded by gambling ads, which is especially bad for vulnerable people.

Belgium has further plans to remove gambling imagery from sports fields starting in 2025 and banning sports sponsorship deals with gambling companies from 2028.

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France’s national gambling authority, l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), published its 2022 market report, showing disparities across the different verticals.

Brick-and-Mortar Gambling on the Rise

Gross gaming revenue for the year reached a record €12.9 billion ($13.9 billion), posting an increase of 20% compared to 2021, spearheaded by operators holding exclusive rights (La Française des Jeux (FDJ) and Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU)) and casinos which contributed €8.2 billion ($8.8 billion), or 64%.

The reopening of almost all retail points of sale since June led to normalizing the business environment for the operators and resulted in an 8% growth in the segment. Within the segment, lottery registered GGR of €5.6 billion ($6 billion), or an increase of 10.2%, with its digital channel accounting for 8.7% growth to reach 12% of total stakes.

Betting on horse racing finally began to recover from the negative impact in the previous two years, posting a nearly 10% increase year-over-year mainly due to the return of punters to the race tracks in the first half of the year.

Casinos posted GGR of €2.5 billion ($2.69 billion) in 2022, registering an increase of 130% year-over-year, supported by the reopening of casinos that were for two years operating under restrictions and with reduced capacity. Casinos marginally surpassed the pre-pandemic 2019 GGR of €2.4 billion ($2.58 billion).

Online Gambling Keeping Gains

The online gambling segment of the market registered GGR of €2.18 billion ($2.34 billion), posting a marginal increase year-over-year, and showing signs of peaking after strong years of growth between 2017 and 2021. The largest share of the segment was for sports betting with 64%, followed by betting on horse racing with 16%, and online poker with 20%.

The record €8.3 billion ($8.9 billion) in stakes helped the segment generate online sports betting GGR of €1.38 billion ($1.48 billion), up 2.5% compared to 2021. Active player accounts marginally increased to 4.5 million, while the average GGR per account was €312 ($335), up 3% year-over-year, and the average number of bets increased 6.6% year-over-year to 162.

Among sports, football is the top preferred by bettors attracting 56% of the stakes, followed by tennis with 22% and basketball with 12%. These three sports account for 90% of the entire market.

The return of physical betting on horse racing impacted the online vertical and online stakes on horse racing registered a decrease of 9% to €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) year-over-year, while GGR was down 8% to €346 million ($372 million).

Online poker registered a growth of 3% compared to 2021, with GGR reaching €442 million ($475.1 million) and the number of active player accounts grew by 7% to 1.76 million (1.65 million in 2021).

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