{"id":75155,"date":"2026-07-09T04:23:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/frances-gambling-regulator-warns-all-esports-betting-is-illegal-as-the-75m-esports-world-cup-opens-in-paris\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T04:23:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:23:50","slug":"frances-gambling-regulator-warns-all-esports-betting-is-illegal-as-the-75m-esports-world-cup-opens-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/frances-gambling-regulator-warns-all-esports-betting-is-illegal-as-the-75m-esports-world-cup-opens-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"France&#8217;s Gambling Regulator Warns All Esports Betting Is Illegal as the $75M Esports World Cup Opens in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">France\u2019s ANJ says all esports betting sites are illegal, with no licensed operator permitted to offer such markets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">The prohibition flows from the 2010 gambling law, which limits online betting to ANJ-listed sports.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>A Hard Line as the World\u2019s Biggest Esports Event Arrives<\/h2>\n<p>Paris hosts the Esports World Cup from July 6 to August 23 \u2013 the Saudi-associated competitive gaming project\u2019s crown had to be relocated from Riyadh due to geopolitical safety concerns. Over seven weeks, the tournament runs 25 competitions across 24 games \u2013 including Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends, Valorant, and Dota 2 \u2013 drawing more than 2,000 players associated with more than 200 different orgs, many of which receive a stipend for being part of the EWC\u2019s umbrella program. The competition carries a prize pool of more than $75 million, the largest ever assembled in esports.<\/p>\n<p>Licensed French operators such as Betclic, Winamax, PMU, and Unibet cannot offer a single market on any of those matches. France\u2019s Autorit\u00e9 nationale des jeux (ANJ) has <a href=\"https:\/\/anj.fr\/foire-aux-questions\/offre-de-jeu-legale-et-illegale\/pourquoi-je-ne-peux-pas-parier-sur-les\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reiterated<\/a> that betting on esports competitions is not permitted anywhere in the French market. \u201cAll sites offering bets on esports are illegal in France,\u201d the regulator stated, warning consumers away from such platforms on the grounds that they carry heavy addiction risk, run no player-protection measures, and use game software that is neither checked nor certified by the authority \u2013 leaving no guarantee that outcomes are not rigged.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament\u2019s arrival has already drawn broader French institutional attention: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/france-televisions-to-air-esports-world-cup-live-from-paris-starting-july-7\/\">France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions is airing the Esports World Cup live<\/a> daily on France 2 and france.tv from July 7, moving one of competitive gaming\u2019s largest events onto national television for the first time. The scale reflects a sector in rapid expansion \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/esports-revenue-climbs-toward-5-1-billion-as-global-audience-tops-640-million\/\">global esports revenue is climbing toward $5.1 billion in 2026<\/a> against an audience topping 640 million.<\/p>\n<p>The prohibition is not a new policy but a consequence of how French betting law is structured. Under the law of May 12, 2010, which opened online betting to competition, wagering is limited to the sporting disciplines the ANJ enters on its authorized list \u2013 and no video game competition appears on it. A later reform, the 2016 Digital Republic law, formally recognized esports as legitimate competition, but it did not extend betting rights to it. The result is that esports can be played, broadcast, and celebrated in France at the highest level, but not legally wagered on.<\/p>\n<p>The concerns most often cited are competitive integrity and match-fixing risk on titles with fast player turnover, and the protection of minors, who are heavily represented in esports audiences. Rather than reopen the broader debate over expanding the perimeter of legal online gambling, French authorities have kept esports outside it while publicly backing the gaming sector: President Emmanuel Macron received the Esports World Cup\u2019s organizers at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e ahead of the event, signaling institutional support for hosting without any move toward legalizing bets.<\/p>\n<p>With no legal domestic outlet, esports betting demand flows to offshore and unlicensed sites \u2013 and the typical esports bettor, described by French industry analysts as young, online, and <a href=\"https:\/\/les-enjeux.com\/2026\/05\/25\/esports-world-cup-paris-regulation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">familiar with cryptocurrencies<\/a>, maps closely onto the demographic the regulatory framework is meant to protect. The ANJ, now led by Pascal Ch\u00e8vremont following his appointment by presidential decree on June 22, has made combating the illegal offer and protecting vulnerable players central priorities, urging consumers to report unlawful sites so it can open investigations and pursue administrative blocking.<\/p>\n<p>For the duration of the Esports World Cup, then, the position is unambiguous: hundreds of millions will watch, thousands will compete, and in France, none of it can legally be bet on.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/frances-gambling-regulator-warns-all-esports-betting-is-illegal-as-the-75m-esports-world-cup-opens-in-paris\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways France\u2019s ANJ says all esports betting sites are illegal, with no licensed operator permitted to offer such markets. The prohibition flows from the 2010 gambling law, which limits online betting to ANJ-listed sports. A Hard Line as the World\u2019s Biggest Esports Event Arrives Paris hosts the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3947362403,"featured_media":75156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3947362403"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}