France’s National Lottery operator, La Française Des Jeux (FDJ) has announced its financial results for H1 2021, revealing sales have returned to pre-pandemic levels and have grown from the same period in 2019.
Turnover for the period ending 30 June was €1.1bn, which signals an increase of 9% on H1 2019. Meanwhile, total stakes placed by players reached €9.16bn, up 8% on two years previous.
Lottery sales in France contributed to the upturn in fortunes as stakes reached €6.9bn, a 4% improvement. This is largely attributed to an increase in instant tickets and large jackpots throughout the period. FDJ will have a contributory margin rate of 36.9% on its lottery sales, up from 33% in 2019.
The greatest area of growth for the operator was sports betting, in which stakes grew by 25%, up to €2.3bn. Despite France’s early exit from the competition, FDJ says that EURO 2020 played an integral role in this achievement, with sports betting sales spiking from 11 June, the date the football competition started.
Stéphane Pallez , CEO of the FDJ group, declared: “The second quarter confirmed a recovery of our activities to levels higher than those recorded before the crisis. Our bets are increasing, both on digital and in our network of points of sale. Over the half-year as a whole, we thus recorded a turnover up by almost 9% compared to 2019.
“In the absence of new restrictive measures linked to the evolution of the health situation, the Group anticipates maintaining good momentum in the second half of the year and is confident in its business and results outlook while respecting its responsible gaming model.”