L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), France’s national gaming authority, has issued a mandate to the four biggest online gaming operators in the country to reduce their budget for promotions and advertisements in 2025.
This decree comes after the ANJ conducted an extensive analysis of promotional policies submitted by the 16 legally approved operators in France, plus the two holders of exclusive rights, the FDJ and the PMU.
As per the details of the in-depth review, there is a substantial increase in the budget for promotional spending, with figures increasing up to €695 million, or by 11%.
This number includes a budget both for bonus promotions and certain marketing expenses such as advertisements and banners.
From here, the ANJ concluded that marketing budgets skyrocketed by 12% when compared to last year, a figure driven in part by an inflation in advertising costs of 5%.
Moreover, digital media is still the number one channel for advertising, accounting for 45% of the total promotional budget, whereas traditional media channels represent 32% of the budget.
When it comes to incentives, financial rewards such as bonus promotions represent 58.5% of the total promotional budget, going up by 11% when compared to 2024.
Similar to this, a hefty chunk of the overall promotional budget for sports sponsorships also noticed a steep incline of 23%.
Despite the ANJ’s approval of the marketing strategies submitted by French operators, the authority still made sure to impose stern conditions in order to ensure responsible marketing practices.
As a result, the ANJ ordered the four largest operators in France, who are responsible for 85% of promotional spending in iGaming, to drastically reduce their promotional budgets.
The ANJ did not name these operators publicly, but still instructed them to make significant reductions to their advertising, financial incentive rewards, as well as sponsorships and marketing expenses on their websites, ordering them to submit the budget cuts by the 17th of February.
Additionally, the ANJ ordered operators to be mindful when it comes to sports sponsorships and exercise moderation to diminish the participation of minors and battle responsible gambling.
The ANJ instructed operators to exclude individuals who are known to have gambling addiction from promotional campaigns and be particularly careful when targeting excessive gamblers in volatile formats such as poker tournaments.
