Tribune. On July 5, the French team came out of Euro football in the round of 16. And yet, the French continued to bet. Admittedly, the peaks of stakes recorded for France-Switzerland – 28 million euros – will probably not be reached, but the European Championship should, in total, generate around 600 million euros of stakes from authorized online operators. on the French market. Betting has become a national sport! Faced with this development, voices are rising to denounce the dangers for young people, in particular those in neighborhoods, who would be the first targets of operators. What should we think ?
It is clear that the online sports betting market has become an El Dorado, growing steadily for several years: 700,000 players in 2010, almost 4 million today. This long-term trend has accelerated recently, for two main reasons: the digitization of gaming practices, especially during the health crisis, and the holding of very attractive sporting events. In the first quarter of 2021, this market saw stakes growth of 79%.
Easy money promise
The vast majority of sports bettors are men under the age of 35, a third of whom are between the ages of 18 and 24. This appetite is explained by the different attributes associated with sports betting: a digital practice from a smartphone, including live, a feeling of belonging to a community, a strong reference to the heroic figures of footballers, a valuation of the ego. with a scenography of victory and, finally, a use of urban codes in advertising campaigns. Sports betting is therefore fully part of the culture of generations Y [nés entre 1980 et 1995] or Z [nés entre 1995 et 2010].
This targeting has been identified for many months by the National Gaming Authority [ANJ] as problematic. Why ? Because young people are more vulnerable to emotions and to the promise of easy money. According to a Harris Interactive study for the ANJ, on the second confinement, young people seem to be much more affected by a loss of control of the game. This feeling is even more obvious among the “new” players, who numbered more than 400,000 in 2020.
Euro football underscores these trends and radically questions the regulatory model that has been in place for ten years. In 2010, when the online gaming market was opened up to competition, France chose a strict framework. Bets are in principle prohibited, with some exceptions in a framework controlled by the regulator so that the game remains recreational.
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