Risk
France's gambling regulator ANJ has published its 2025 online betting data and found that high-risk players cluster on niche tournaments and in-play outcomes. More than 80% of problem bettors' wagers went to leagues in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia, competitions that draw almost no casual punters. On set betting in tennis or half-by-half outcomes, the share of such players reached 80–89%.
The ANJ algorithm sorts the audience into four risk categories: recreational, moderate risk, excessive and clearly excessive. The regulator's point is not that niche markets are inherently more dangerous, but that the casual bettor is missing from them. The findings could become grounds for tighter requirements on the tournament line-up and bet types operators may offer. France's Centre for monitoring drugs and addictions estimates that about 1.17 million people show problem gambling behaviour, 360,000 of them excessive players.
Market
The market keeps growing. Stakes with licensed operators rose 12% to €11.52bn, GGR by 10.4% to €1.766bn. Football took 54.9% of turnover (€6.32bn) and two thirds of GGR. The UEFA Champions League, its calendar expanded from 137 to 189 matches, posted a 48.6% rise in bets; three quarters of that growth came from the number of games, not the average stake. The new Club World Cup averaged €3.9m in bets per match, close to the Champions League's €4.4m.
Live betting's share is markedly higher in the niches: 26% in the Champions League against 50–58% in second-tier European divisions. ANJ ties that to round-the-clock coverage, with South American leagues running at night and Asian ones in the morning. Average RTP for 2025 was 84.67% against a legal ceiling of 85%. Payouts jumped to 94.5% in September, after which operators cut odds in October and November (82.3% and 74.2%), pulling the annual figure back into line.
