Why esports betting is illegal in France, and what the law says

France is hosting the Esports World Cup this summer. The festival moved from Riyadh to Paris on May 20, and by mid-July it had entered its second week, bringing its tournaments to French soil. Yet in the host country, no one may legally take a bet on any of those matches. During the event's first week, Esports Insider reported on July 16, the French gambling regulator repeated that betting on esports is illegal across the country, on every platform.

The rule surprises many visitors, because France has a large, legal market for betting on football, tennis or horse racing. The difference is not an accident or a gap waiting to be filled. It follows from how French law builds its gambling market: a short, closed list of what is allowed, and a separate legal frame for video game competitions that leaves betting out on purpose.

This guide sets out the French position from the texts themselves: what the regulator says and why, the four kinds of gambling the law allows, how a sport gets onto the list of events open to betting, the 2016 law that gave esports competitions a legal status, the government's own answer to Parliament on the question, how the ban is enforced, and what it does and does not cover. It describes the market and its regulation only. It is not legal advice, and where the answer for a business depends on its own case, the guide says so.

Autorité nationale des jeux, list of authorized gambling; French Ministry of the Economy, page on video game competitions, June 24, 2026.

What the regulator says

The body in charge is the Autorité nationale des jeux, the national gaming authority, known by its French initials ANJ. Among the questions it answers for the public is why people in France cannot bet on esports competitions. Its answer begins with the law. Betting on esports competitions is prohibited, the regulator says, and every site that offers bets on esports is illegal in France.

The ANJ does not stop at the prohibition. It strongly advises the public against using such sites and lists the risks it sees in them. They carry a risk of addiction and apply no player protection, it says. They are poorly secured, so personal and banking data may be exposed and identities stolen. Their game software is neither checked nor approved by the ANJ, which means the integrity of the games is not guaranteed and repayment of the sums staked is not assured. The regulator also warns of deceptive or fraudulent practices, such as repeated charges taken without consent.

The same answer tells the public how to flag a suspect site. A site that looks illegal can be reported to the ANJ, and the regulator may then open an investigation and, where needed, order the site blocked.

Why the law draws the line at esports

The ANJ gives one main reason for the ban: the protection of young people. In its words, lawmakers wanted to shield the young from the dangers of gambling, among them addiction, isolation, and family or financial problems. The regulator adds that the earlier a person starts gambling, the greater the risk of addiction.

That reasoning ties the ban to the audience of esports rather than to the games themselves. The written question put to the government in 2024, discussed below, made the same link from the other side: its author noted that esports draws a young audience that needs protecting from the harms of betting, and raised the public health stakes of offers based abroad that remain easy to reach.

The regulator's page on authorized gambling repeats the point in fewer words. Esports bets are prohibited by law, it says, to protect young people from the harms of gambling. Neither text claims that esports results are less reliable than those of other competitions, and neither treats the ban as a judgment on the games or their players. The stated concern is who would be betting.

The closed list: four kinds of gambling

French law does not start from freedom to offer gambling and then forbid certain products. It starts from a general prohibition and allows only what it names. The ANJ sums up the result in one answer: French law authorizes only four categories of gambling and sports betting. The government, answering Parliament in 2024, described the same list as limited and set out in the law.

The same answer names what falls outside: online casinos, and bets on esports competitions. Both are left off the list, and anything off the list is illegal to offer. The government put it in those terms in 2024: because esports competitions are not on the list, offers of bets on them belong to the illegal offer of gambling.

This structure explains why the question is not one of licensing. A business cannot apply to the ANJ for a license to take bets on esports, because no category exists for the license to cover. Esports betting would first have to be added to the law.

How a sport gets onto the betting list

Sports betting itself is not open on any event. The 2010 law that opened online gambling to competition, law number 2010-476 of May 12, 2010, is built on a list of the competitions on which bets may be taken, and the regulator's first decision drawing up that list cites its Article 12 as a basis. Esports Insider describes the law's Articles 10 to 14 as limiting legal betting to a catalog of sports approved by the ANJ, a catalog in which esports does not appear.

When the market opened, the rules for drawing up that catalog sat in a decree of the same day, decree number 2010-483 of May 12, 2010. Its Article 2, as the regulator quoted it in its first decision on the list in May 2010, had the authority define, sport by sport, the categories of competitions that may serve as a basis for bets. It did so after the opinion of the sports federation that holds the delegation for that sport, or of the sports minister when there is none, and on the basis of four criteria:

1. the standing of the organizer, which had to be one of the types the decree lists, among them an international sports federation;
2. the rules of the competition, which must provide for the results to be made public;
3. the age of the competitors admitted;
4. the profile and stakes of the competition, which must be enough to draw a sufficient number of bettors.

Article 3 of the same decree, as quoted in that decision, added a second layer. For each sport and each category of competitions, the authority defined the types of results on which bets may be taken, again after the federation's opinion.

The mechanism was built around sports federations and sporting events. Video game competitions have their own legal frame, described below.

The first list, in 2010

The regulator of the time, the online gaming regulatory authority known as ARJEL, began the list in decision 2010-008 of May 21, 2010, a text the ANJ publishes among its records. Its college adopted a first list of competition categories and types of results for some sports. The decision gave the delegated federations until Thursday, May 27, 2010 to comment, after which their opinion would be deemed favorable, and planned to update the list and extend it to other sports before the end of June 2010.

The approach was sport by sport from the start, each step tied to a federation's opinion. Neither the decision nor the legal bases it cites mention esports or video games.

The 2016 law: a status for competitions, without betting

Esports did gain a place in French law, through the law for a Digital Republic, law number 2016-1321 of October 7, 2016. Its Articles 101 and 102 concern video game competitions and professional players. They created a legal category of video game competitions in the Internal Security Code, in Articles L. 321-8 to L. 321-11, as Esports Insider sets out.

The same text closes the door on betting. Article L. 321-8, as quoted in the 2024 written question to the government, provides that organizing a video game competition within the meaning of that chapter does not include organizing the taking of bets. A competition organizer in France therefore runs a lawful contest, with entry fees and prizes in certain cases, but the law that allows it gives no basis for wagers on its matches.

That pairing is the core of the French position. The law recognized esports competitions as legitimate events and, in the same frame, separated them from gambling. Esports Insider, which argues in its July piece for a change of policy, describes the law that recognized competitive gaming as having outlawed betting in the same paragraph.

In France, an esports match can carry prize money, a broadcast and a sponsor. What the law has never given it is a place on the betting list.

How a lawful competition is run

The rules that do apply to esports competitions show how the law keeps them apart from gambling. The Ministry of the Economy describes them on a page written on June 24, 2026, drawing on the 2016 law, on decree 2017-871 of May 9, 2017 on the organization of video game competitions, and on an order of April 17, 2018.

A prior declaration is required when three conditions meet: players take part physically and at the same time, an entry fee is charged, and rewards are offered, whether money, goods or other benefits. The declaration is filed online with the Ministry of the Interior at least 30 days before the event. Running such a competition without declaring it is a fourth-class minor offense, punishable by a fine of up to €750.

Prizes are protected. When the total of cash prizes and goods exceeds €10,000, the organizer must show a mechanism that guarantees they will be paid out in full, such as a security, a trust, insurance or an escrow account. Entry fees are allowed at physical events, but their total may not exceed the cost of organizing the competition, prizes included. Online competitions open to the public may not charge for participation at all, beyond the price of the game and the cost of connecting, and the rule extends to online qualifiers held before a physical final.

The same page asks organizers to keep each minor's written authorization and a copy of the identity document for a year, ready to show the authorities, and it recommends using the game's age rating to set the conditions of entry. The order of April 17, 2018 fixes the share of a minor's prize that is left at the disposal of the legal guardians. The concern that runs through these rules, the age of the audience and of the players, is the same one the ANJ gives for the betting ban.

The government's answer to Parliament

The question was put to the government directly in 2024. In written question number 16939, published in the Official Journal on April 9, 2024, the deputy Aurélien Taché asked the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty how it intended to frame betting on esports competitions. He noted that the ANJ had approved no operator for such bets, that Article L. 321-8 of the Internal Security Code excludes betting from the organization of video game competitions, and that offers based abroad were easy to reach. He asked whether the law might change.

The answer, published on June 11, 2024, restated the frame without opening that door. The government said it follows the application of public policy on gambling closely, that the Internal Security Code strictly governs the offer of such games, and that the law sets a limited list of the gambling allowed in France. Betting on esports competitions is not on that list, it said, and offers of such bets therefore fall within the illegal offer of gambling. The answer announced no plan to add esports to the list.

How the ban is enforced

Enforcement is aimed at the offer, not at the public. The government's 2024 answer gives the task of fighting access to the illegal offer to the ANJ, working with the consumer protection and fraud directorate known by its French initials DGCCRF, notably by blocking unauthorized betting sites and platforms.

Those powers were strengthened by the law of March 2, 2022 aimed at democratizing sport in France. Under it, according to the government's answer, the ANJ can order internet service providers, and search engines or directories, to block sites that offer or advertise illegal gambling. The regulator publishes a blacklist of the gambling sites that are the subject of an administrative order to block and delist them.

The authorities also watch the intermediaries around illegal sites. The government's answer names influencers who promote such sites by filming themselves playing, and says the DGCCRF stepped up its checks on these practices from 2023. The regulator's own pages divide the roles for the public: a dispute with an illegal site is outside the reach of the ANJ and of the gambling ombudsman, and goes to the DGCCRF.

A ban that meets the Esports World Cup

The Paris edition of the Esports World Cup brought the rule into view. Esports Insider reported that the ANJ issued its reminder during the event's first week, restating that betting on esports is illegal everywhere in France and on every platform, and giving the same reasons: the protection of young people, and the risks of unregulated sites, from insecure data and identity theft to software that is not checked and payments that are not guaranteed.

The outlet's piece, published on July 16 as the festival entered its second week, argues that the ban should change, a position the regulator's texts do not share. What the reminder confirms is that the arrival of a major international event did not alter the legal position. Teams, players and organizers can compete for prize money in France under the 2016 frame. The matches they play are not a lawful basis for bets in the country while the 2010 list leaves esports out.

What the ban covers, and what it does not

Read together, the texts draw a clear outline. The ban concerns the offer of bets on esports competitions to the public in France: no license exists for it, and any site that offers it is illegal there, in the ANJ's words. It does not touch the competitions themselves, which are lawful when they follow the 2016 rules, nor the prize money paid to players under those rules.

The texts also leave some questions to the case. Whether a particular product counts as a bet, a prize competition or something else depends on how it is built, and the government's answer and the regulator's pages do not rule on individual products. The French texts also bind only the French market: other countries regulate esports betting in their own way, and nothing in this guide carries their rules into France or the French rule abroad.

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