ARJEL, the gambling regulator for France, has announced that online sports betting in the country reached an all-time high in the period running up to June 30th, 2016.Licensed French companies took a record breaking €585 million during the period, a staggering increase of 73% in comparison to the same period last year.
What made the difference?
The UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament definitely helped with the huge rise in betting, with 17% of all total bets during the period being made on the outcome of games during the competition.Football in general was a large part of the reason for the increase, with total sports revenue up 45% 57% of the total wagers involved were on football games.ARJEL also said that there had been a considerable amount of interest from the sports betting community in France when it came to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, with interest being significantly higher than it was for the London games four years earlier. 
During the London Olympics, licensed operators in the country took €19.2 million, earning a total revenue of €3.3 million.These numbers almost doubled for Rio this year (in fact, the total revenue more than doubled), with operators taking €33.9 million in wagers, with a total revenue of €6.8 million.
Declines
Not everything is on the up though, as ARJEL announced that poker revenue was down 2% from the first quarter, although during that first quarter the market had enjoyed its first ever period of growth.Betting on horse racing is also continuing to fall, turnover is down 12% year-on-year, and total revenue is down by 10%.With the Olympics and Euro 2016 obviously being factors, but sports betting also on a clear rise, it will be intriguing to see if the incline continues through 2017.