Report: More Declines for the French Online Poker Industry During Q3 2015
As the latest industry figures indicate, the third quarter of 2015 did not see any signs of improvement for the French gambling market.
The latest report, released by the country's gambling regulator ARJEL, indicates that the industry is far from recovering from the decline that started in 2010, when the industry was regulated through the creation of the dot-fr ring-fenced market.
According to ARJEL, the third quarter of 2015 has seen the revenue generated by the online gambling operators licensed in the country suffer a 0.3-percent decline compared to the same time in 2015, with the companies declaring revenues for €176.1 million.
Online poker continues to be the black sheep in the French gambling industry, as the revenues generated by the operators went down to €54 million, which indicates a 5-percent contraction of the market compared to 2014.
As shown by the image below, poker's negative performance is caused primarily by a 20-percent decline in the cash game stakes.
Things went differently for tournament poker, as this is is the only game that jumped onto the positive side. As the image indicates, a big jump after the traditionally low summer months allowed tournament poker to report an encouraging 21-percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2014.
PokerNews France's Julien Tissot had a closer look at the numbers regarding tournament poker, to find out that the growth seems to be largely influenced by the higher number of sit-and-go (SNG) tournaments played in 2015.
Tournament poker, by definition, includes both multi-table tournaments and SNGs. During the first trimester of 2015, the SNGs accounted for 59 percent of the buy-ins spent in tournament poker.
In the second trimester of the year, this number went up to 73 percent, with the growth continuing also during the third trimester, as SNG buy-ins accounted for 77 percent of tournament poker's total buy-ins.
The 40-page document released by ARJEL also shows how things went better for sports betting and horse betting, with the two verticals reporting a growth of 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively. According to the gambling authority, the number of active sports bettors in the country rose to 165,000, marking a 5-percent growth compared to 2014.
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