The coronavirus crisis has not spared the gaming sector, particularly casinos and traditional lottery and scratch cards.

But poker and online betting have been very successful, partly offsetting the losses.

During the lockdown, the closure of many tobacconists and casinos strongly impacted the gaming sector. "When the lockdown began, 20% of our outlets were closed and sports competitions, which represents 20% of our turnover, were stopped. During the two months of confinement, we lost 60% of our bets, "recalled the CEO of the French Games Stéphane Pallez, Monday noon on Europe 1.

But with the deconfinement, the French have partly resumed their habits while online poker and sports betting have even experienced strong growth.

Conversely, casinos remain strongly impacted by the coronavirus crisis.

Europe 1 takes stock of the economic situation of the gaming sector.

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Still so much success for Loto and Euromillions

Like many players in the sector, la Française des jeux has been affected by the pandemic.

"We are not yet back to normal, we will give forecasts by mid-October. At least June, we returned to levels comparable to those of June of last year," said Stéphane Pallez .

If the FDJ has succeeded in limiting losses, it owes much to its traditional lottery games.

"The crisis has shown that our best sellers remain our great drawing games: the lottery and the Euromillions. These are the Games that have the most players and these are the games that people have been on our site most naturally. , because it is part of their habits. On the Euromillions we made an agreement with all the European lotteries and gradually the jackpot will be able to rise to 250 million euros ", she was satisfied.  

The confinement also allowed a sharp increase in online games on the FDJ site.

“We had a 50% growth in bets on the online lottery, but the bulk of our turnover remains in points of sale and it is linked to again a number of habits. do not play any more, but they continue to play these games ", noted the boss of the FDJ.

In contrast, scratch cards have suffered from the crisis.

“Scratch games are a little bit different because they are point of sale games. So when the points of sale are partly closed or when there is less traffic, there is a bigger drop. on scratch games, but sports betting is working very well at the moment, "added Stéphane Pallez.

A bright summer for sports betting

Indeed, sports betting benefited from an exceptional summer, notably with the presence of two French clubs in the semi-finals of the Football Champions League (Lyon eliminated in the semi-final and PSG beaten in the final, both by Bayern Munich).

"We had a very good month of August thanks to sports betting, since we had exceptional events with French teams in August. We are on a good momentum in September, we are in the process of return to normal but we are returning to levels of activity which make us think that we are on the right track ", rejoiced the boss of the FDJ.

Online betting sites also hit the jackpot thanks to the Champions League in August.

"We had a special summer because all the championships resumed except Ligue 1, so we had a lot of bets. And the Champions League formula in Final 8 mode made August a rather unusual month. in terms of stakes. We have experienced very, very big growth, "assured Julien Huber, in charge of sports betting and poker at Winamax.

On the other hand, the Tour de France did not seduce punters.

"The Tour de France is still a fairly confidential sport with us, which is very little bet. It is first football which represents 50 percent of the stakes, then tennis. We have a lot of expectations on Roland- Garros (tournament starts September 27). "

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Online poker hit the nail on the head during lockdown

At Winamax, online poker was also a hit during the lockdown.

"Sports betting has collapsed with the absence of sports competitions. On the other hand, poker has worked very well for us. We have done a little more than compensate for these products," said Julien Huber.

"It's difficult to say if the growth we experienced in the first half of the year would have been the same without containment. But we can say that it would have been at the same level, and certainly even a little lower without confinement."

So what are the reasons for this success in online poker?

"During the confinement, poker was an activity that lent itself rather well to the fact that people were confined: they had time and they were deprived of a lot of their leisure, which freed them a little budget," said the manager at Winamax.

"What was easier for the players who were confined to their homes was to play tournaments in what is called the three multi table, which last between two, three and four tournaments. It worked well," said he explained.

Casinos in difficulty

On the other hand, casinos, which were forced to close during confinement, continue to suffer the impact of the crisis.

"It resumed with difficulty. During the confinement we made zero since we were closed, unlike my colleagues from the Française des Jeux and Winamax. This is the first time that we have closed our casinos," lamented Eric Cavillon , the general manager of Barrière casinos.

"The recovery is difficult because we obviously wanted to have extremely strict sanitary measures. So things are picking up slowly."