French Bookmakers Spent €9M on New Player Bonuses in June

The figures come from the French gambling regulator ANJ’s October 15 report on the first half of 2026. The contrast with the months before the tournament is sharp. Between January and May, acquisition bonuses fell 6% from the same period in 2025, while sports betting stakes grew only 4%.

June Accounts Jump 69% as Bonuses Accelerate

In June, the pattern changed:

• Acquisition bonuses – €9 million, versus €2.4 million in June 2025;
• Sports betting stakes – up 47% year on year;
• Active sports betting accounts – 3.1 million, up 69%;
• Football stakes – up 116%, compared with June 2025.

Active accounts should not be read as unique bettors. Players may hold accounts with several licensed operators. Across the full half-year, ANJ recorded 5.2 million active sports betting accounts but 3.6 million unique sports bettors.

Acquisition Takes a Bigger Share of Player Rewards

The change is also visible within operators’ wider bonus spending. In June, online sports betting player rewards totaled €35.5 million, compared with €14.5 million a year earlier. Acquisition bonuses are only one part of those totals.

A 15M calculation using ANJ figures puts acquisition bonuses at 25.4% of all sports betting player rewards in June 2026. The comparable share was 16.6% in June 2025, a rise of 8.8 percentage points. A greater share of player rewards therefore went toward recruitment during the tournament’s opening month.

There is a second way to read the figures. Acquisition bonuses increased 3.75 times, while betting stakes increased 1.47 times. Dividing those two changes gives a ratio of about 2.55. The aggregate acquisition-bonus-to-stakes ratio was therefore roughly 2.55 times as high as a year earlier. This compares market totals, not the cost of acquiring an individual customer.

Growth Does Not Establish Acquisition Efficiency

Sports betting stakes reached €6.6 billion in the first half of 2026, up 10.6%, while gross gaming revenue rose 11.6% to €995 million. The wider online market generated €1.45 billion in GGR, an 11% increase.

Yet stakes per active sports betting account fell 14% over the half-year. In June alone, the average stake per bet declined from €17.40 to €14.70. More accounts and more total betting activity therefore did not mean larger average wagers.

The regulator has not published operator-level acquisition costs, first-deposit conversion rates or longer-term value for the June cohort. Whether the World Cup produced sustained player growth, rather than a temporary spike in activity, will likely become clearer from second-half data.