France Reaffirms Esports Betting Ban as Esports World Cup Runs in Paris

Betting on esports remains illegal everywhere in France, on every platform, the country’s gambling regulator has reiterated, issuing the reminder during the first week of the Esports World Cup in Paris. The Autorite Nationale des Jeux says the ban exists because the legislator wants to “protect the young public from the dangers inherent in gambling (addiction, isolation, family and financial problems, etc.).”

The timing is awkward. The state is hosting the biggest event in esports while its regulator restates that nobody may legally bet on it.

Why Esports Betting Is Illegal in France

The prohibition sits in two pieces of law. The 2010 French online gambling law, at Articles 10-14, limits legal betting to a sporting catalogue approved by the ANJ, and esports does not appear on that list. Then legislation passed in 2016 created a new legal category for “competitions de jeux video” in the Code de la securite interieure, at Articles L.321-8 to L.321-11, and stated directly, in the law’s own text, that organising competition under this chapter does not include organising betting on it. The law that formally acknowledged esports outlawed betting on it in the same paragraph, which is why no licensing route exists to be applied for.

The ANJ’s reminder was followed by warnings against using sites that do offer esports markets, since by its definition any such site is unapproved under French legislation. It lists the dangers posed by unregulated operators: a lack of responsible gambling tools, insecure data and identity theft, rigged gaming software, no payment guarantee, and unfair commercial practices.

The Line Nobody Can Explain

The practical effect is a boundary that falls apart on contact. An 18-year-old esports fan in France can place a bet on the FIFA World Cup but not the Esports World Cup. They can wager on France versus Spain, but not on Vitality versus Karmine Esports. The regulator’s own wording almost implies that watching esports is more addictive than watching traditional sport, though both are entertainment products and a best-of-five esports final can run far longer than a typical sporting encounter.

Most comparable regimes went the other way. In the UK, anyone wishing to wager on esports can, provided they are over 18 and prove it, use a platform integrated with GamStop, avoid credit cards and meet the rest of the standard licensed requirements. The same applies under the Maltese Gaming Authority. In the US, Kalshi offers esports everywhere, and while the prediction-market debate continues, most US citizens can now trade esports with a click.

Where the Money Actually Goes

Prohibition does not remove the demand, it relocates it. Fans who want to bet on esports because they enjoy watching it are pushed toward skin betting or offshore operators, which is precisely the category the ANJ devotes most of its post to warning about. The demographic the regulator claims to be protecting ends up in the least-protected environment available, which is not good policy design.

The scale of that displaced appetite is visible where it is legal. Kalshi’s esports markets traded $231.8 million across 4.05 million individual trades in June 2026, spread over 28 distinct series covering seven titles, though as a prediction market that figure is not equivalent to total money risked. Counter-Strike 2 alone accounted for 57 percent of contracts traded, $132.1 million, a good chunk of it running through the single week in the middle of the month when IEM Cologne was live.

The Fix Is Not Complicated

The regulator does not need to craft a brand-new regime to close the gap. It would only need to allow standard online sportsbooks to include an odds feed for esports titles, at which point the people already old enough to bet on football or the horses could wager on esports through the same licensed, age-verified, GamStop-style plumbing. Until it does, France hands its esports betting market to operators it warns about but cannot fully police, and it does so in the same weeks its capital hosts the Esports World Cup.