Survey Data Points to a Shifting Betting Landscape
The campaign is underpinned by a study commissioned by the ANJ from Toluna – Harris Interactive Étude de Toluna – Harris Interactive, which maps French attitudes towards sports betting ahead of the tournament. The headline figure: 41% of French people who plan to follow the World Cup intend to place real-money bets with a licensed operator — five percentage points more than during the 2022 World Cup and six points above Euro 2024 levels.
Among the under-35s, that intention climbs to 54%. This demographic already accounts for 64% of all sports bettors in France, a market that counted more than 5 million active accounts in 2025 with an average annual stake of €2,186 per account. Football remains the dominant discipline at 55% of all bets placed, followed by tennis and basketball.
On the market-scale picture, the 2022 World Cup generated over €900 million in combined online and retail stakes, with the France vs Argentina final alone recording nearly €54 million in online wagers — a single-match record. ANJ projects that the expanded 2026 format could push total stakes to approximately €1.2 billion, though the trajectory of the French national team will remain a key variable in that outcome.
A Risk Profile the Industry Cannot Ignore
The table below tracks how key French sports betting indicators have shifted across three successive major tournaments, illustrating the accelerating trend that informed ANJ's decision to escalate its prevention response.
| Indicator | 2022 World Cup | Euro 2024 | 2026 World Cup (projected/surveyed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intention to bet among followers | 36% | 35% | 41% |
| Intention to bet — under-35s | Not published | Not published | 54% |
| Total stakes (online + retail) | ~€900M | Not published | ~€1.2B |
| Single-match online wager record | €54M (Final) | — | — |
| Habitual bettors reporting loss of control | Rising trend | Rising trend | 37% |
| Under-25 bettors reporting loss of control | — | — | 67% |
The jump from 36% to 41% betting intention across three tournaments signals structural growth in French sports betting participation, not a one-off spike tied to team performance.
€2,186
Average annual stake per active sports betting account in France (2025)
€900M+
Combined online and retail stakes generated by the 2022 World Cup
€54M
Online wagers on the France vs Argentina 2022 final — a single-match record
€1.2B
ANJ projected total stakes for the expanded 2026 World Cup format
5M+
Active sports betting accounts in France in 2025
About the Toluna – Harris Interactive Study
The ANJ commissioned Toluna – Harris Interactive to conduct the survey underpinning the 'Zone à risques' campaign. Toluna – Harris Interactive is one of France's leading polling and market research firms, regularly engaged for public-policy studies. The methodology covers a nationally representative sample of French adults, with oversampling of sports-betting-active respondents to ensure statistical reliability on behavioural and attitudinal questions. The 2026 wave is directly comparable to equivalent surveys run ahead of the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024, making the trend lines — particularly the five-point jump in betting intention — methodologically robust.
Beyond the volume projections, the survey surfaces data points that regulators and operators alike will need to absorb. Awareness of addiction risks associated with sports betting has reached 83% of French people — up 14 percentage points since 2022 — and rises to 91% among those planning to bet during the tournament. Recognition is rising, but so is concerning behaviour.
More than one in three habitual bettors (37%) report having already felt they were losing control of their gambling. Among those under 25, that figure reaches 67%. One in five French adults (20%) report knowing someone close to them who has lost control, a figure that climbs to 48% among younger respondents.
Rising risk awareness and rising harmful behaviour are not mutually exclusive — the French data demonstrates both can escalate simultaneously.
The OFDT Https://www.ofdt.fr/sites/ofdt/files/2025-03/rapport_eropp_jah-2023.pdf estimated in 2023 that 15.3% of sports bettors in France exhibit problematic gambling patterns. The most commonly reported risk behaviour is chasing losses, followed by staking more than one can afford and experiencing guilt. The proportion of bettors indicating they will spend more than in previous years has risen sharply: 30% in 2026 versus 19% in 2022.
Warning
The gap between general population risk indicators and under-25 cohort figures is stark and operationally significant. While 37% of habitual bettors overall report having felt out of control, that figure reaches 67% among those under 25 — nearly double. Similarly, loss-of-control awareness in the social circle of younger respondents stands at 48%, compared to 20% for the general adult population. For operators, this is not a marginal edge case: the under-35 demographic represents 64% of all active sports bettors in France. Responsible gambling controls calibrated to an average adult population will systematically underserve — and underprotect — the segment that generates the majority of betting volume.
Transforming a Legal Requirement into a Warning Signal
The creative logic of "Zone à risques" is precise. The yellow disclaimer banner — long treated as a routine legal formality on gambling advertising — is reimagined as the hazard tape used to cordon off genuinely dangerous areas. The campaign, conceived by agency LIBRE, maps the psychological deterioration of a problem gambler onto this visual language: play, lose, chase, stake more, agitate, withdraw. The pleasure of sport disappears. Eventually, the match itself ceases to matter.
To give the concept physical presence, the ANJ staged an immersive installation in a public space. Behind a stretch of yellow hazard tape, a reconstructed living room setting hosted an actor reproducing the behaviours characteristic of a bettor in crisis — accumulating losses, compulsive re-staking, visible agitation and anger — over the full duration of a live match. The installation was designed to render visible a set of behaviours that are typically hidden or normalised, prompting passersby to engage directly with ANJ teams on site.
Campaign messaging directs the public to Evalujeu, an online self-assessment tool that allows users to evaluate their gambling habits and access tailored guidance, as well as information on professional support structures for both bettors and those around them.
How the 'Zone à risques' Campaign Works in Practice
Reappropriate a familiar legal symbol
Agency LIBRE took the mandatory yellow disclaimer banner that appears on all gambling advertising in France — typically treated as background noise by consumers — and redesigned it visually as hazard tape demarcating a genuine danger zone, directly linking the regulatory language to real-world risk.
Stage an immersive public installation
ANJ erected a physical installation in a public space, cordoned off with the yellow hazard tape. Inside, an actor reproduced the escalating behaviour of a bettor in crisis — accumulating losses, compulsive re-staking, visible agitation — across the full duration of a live match, making typically hidden behaviour impossible to ignore.
Facilitate direct public engagement on-site
ANJ staff were present at the installation to engage with passersby in real time, answering questions and providing information on support resources, converting ambient awareness into active dialogue.
Direct audiences to Evalujeu for self-assessment
All campaign messaging funnels the public to Evalujeu, ANJ's online self-assessment tool. Users can evaluate their own gambling patterns, receive tailored guidance, and access contact details for professional support services — for both bettors and their close contacts.
World Cup 2026 Compliance Implications for French-Licensed Operators
The ANJ's campaign carries strategic signals that extend beyond public messaging. Three factors converge in a way that compliance officers and product teams at French-licensed operators should be monitoring closely.
First, the regulator is explicitly flagging the correlation between major tournament advertising volumes and the growth in problematic gambling — and naming operators' revenue contribution from excessive gamblers as a specific concern. This framing suggests that scrutiny of marketing conduct, particularly around high-profile fixtures, is likely to intensify in the run-up to and during the tournament.
Second, the demographic data reinforces a long-standing regulatory pressure point: the under-35 cohort is simultaneously the most commercially valuable segment for sports betting operators and the most vulnerable. With 54% of young World Cup followers intending to bet and two-thirds of habitual under-25 bettors having felt out of control, targeted responsible gambling obligations around this group may become a more active regulatory focus. France's experience with the ANJ algorithm identifying 180,000 problem gamblers illustrates how the regulator is prepared to act on behavioural data at scale.
Third, the campaign's choice to redeploy the mandatory advertising disclaimer as its central symbol is not incidental. It signals that the ANJ regards existing legal warnings as insufficient to address the scale of the problem. Operators should treat this as an indicator that mandatory safeguard requirements could be reviewed and potentially tightened in the regulatory cycle following the tournament — particularly if stake projections near the €1.2 billion mark are realised. The broader French gaming market, which reached €14.1 billion in 2025, provides the commercial context within which ANJ is calibrating these interventions.
How operators respond to this public framing — proactively reinforcing their own responsible gambling tools ahead of the tournament rather than waiting for enforcement action — may influence both their regulatory standing and the next phase of ANJ rulemaking.
According to ANJ.
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