A $75m eSports World Cup ended in Paris - betting on it was still illegal in France

Paris spent seven weeks hosting an eSports World Cup with 25 tournaments, 24 games and a prize pool above $75m. None of that opened a legal French betting market. The Autorité nationale des jeux says eSports wagering remains unauthorised, and sites making those bets available in France are illegal gambling offers.

The distinction is uncomfortable because everything around the wager can look official: a major venue, professional teams, sponsors and global coverage. French betting legality follows the product and licence, not the prestige of the underlying competition.

The ANJ points to Article L321-8 of the Internal Security Code. The provision defines video-game competition and says its organisation does not include organising bets. The regulator interprets that framework as excluding eSports from France's authorised betting offer.

That is different from saying eSports competitions themselves are prohibited. Players, teams and organisers can compete; betting operators cannot infer permission to offer markets to French users from the event's lawful presence.

The prize-pool figure describes money allocated to competition results. It does not measure stakes placed by viewers, revenue earned by an operator or funds seized by a regulator. Repeating it beside a betting-ban headline without a label can create a false connection.

The ANJ gives no estimate of how much French users wagered illegally on the event. It also does not name an operator or accuse the World Cup organiser of offering bets. The warning is directed at the offers accessible to players.

A website can be licensed somewhere else and still lack authority to serve France. The ANJ says eSports betting sites reachable by French users sit outside the domestic legal offer, which means the French safeguards for age checks, disputes and player protection do not apply through an ANJ licence.

For affiliates, the compliance question is therefore geographic. A market that is legal for one audience can be prohibited for another, even when the event page and odds are identical.

The regulator says it blocked 1,290 illegal gambling sites or advertisements during 2025. That total is not an eSports-only count, but it shows the channel France uses against inaccessible or offshore offers: domain and advertising disruption alongside public warnings.

A future named blocking order would provide the next level of evidence. It could identify the domain, date and procedural route rather than leaving readers with a general category warning.

The safest test is not whether an operator advertises in French or shows a licence badge. It is whether the offer and domain appear within the authorised French framework for the product being sold. For eSports, the ANJ's answer remains straightforward: the betting category is not authorised.

That makes the end of the World Cup a useful fact-checking moment. The event concluded on 23 August. France's betting prohibition did not conclude with it.