SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), France’s unified gambling authority has updated the list of authorised competitions which licensed operators can offer as betting events/markets.
The new ‘sports list’ was drawn up to clarify the process of approving sporting events for wagering and strengthen betting integrity on professional sports.
ANJ’s list is made of two components: the competitions and sporting events authorised as betting products and the types of results and phases of play relating to these competitions or events.
Notably, the numerous types of sporting outcomes that were authorised, which could be difficult to understand and connect with one another, have been brought together under more general types of outcome.
As such ANJ said, the new and “more concise” wording “does not lead to a reduction in the number of bets authorised but places them under broader categories”.
In terms of high profile competitions, the March Madness finals have been authoirsed and ANJ highlighted two further changes: in basketball, bets may now be placed on the number of points scored by a player, even if it is under 20, while the restriction expressed by the type of result “Player(s) who score(s) 20 points or more” has been removed. In tennis, the ban on handicap betting has been abolished.
This part of the list was “radically modified to make it easier for operators to implement and comply with”, ANJ noted.
France’s gambling regulations prohibit bets that don’t rely on the bettors’ sporting expertise and knowledge, ANJ added that it decided to update the list because it had been regularly amended since France regulated its online gaming and betting sector in 2010 and had lost some of its “clarity and consistency”.
The list was completely rewritten following extensive consultation with French stakeholders such as the Ministry of Sports, Olympic and Paralympic Committees, sports federations and professional leagues and all sports betting operators.
Some sporting events were removed because they no longer exist, meet the legal criteria for inclusion or are likely to encourage manipulation, with ANJ citing top-level Armenian or Tunisian football championships as examples.
In total, 179 competitions were removed from the list and it now includes 772 competitions.
2024 proceedings will see ANJ tighten its monitoring of gambling advertising, detailed as a key integrity initiative as France will host the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.
