Guide To Online Sports Betting, To Bet Well Online
Online sports betting has many advantages, in my opinion, over traditional sports betting, but also many common points, especially in the way it works, or in the vocabulary used. The most notable differences between online and live sports betting are how to bet, how practical it is, or when a sports bet is possible. In France, online sports betting is offered by online bookmakers, the best known of which are Winamax, BetClic, Parions Sport or Unibet, PMU, ZEbet and Bwin. Find them in a comparison of legal sports betting sites in France. In all, there are 13 legal online sports betting operators in France.
What is online sports betting?
You certainly know it, in sports betting, a player bets money on an event that may or may not occur during a sports event. If the predicted event happens, the player wins money (he recovers his bet + an amount determined by the odds) and if the event does not happen, it is not the bookmaker (sports betting organization) who wins the bet. In online sports betting, it is exactly the same principle, with the difference that the bookmaker does not maintain a physical betting office, but online.
The advantages of online sports betting sites:
Compared to physical bookmakers’ points of sale, online sports betting sites have many advantages. They are open 24 hours a day, accessible from anywhere in the world (when the country authorises the online bookmaker), the odds are constantly changing, many statistics are sometimes made available by the bookmaker himself. Players can also bet from all types of devices (computers, smartphones, tablets). It only takes a few seconds to place a bet on a football match, or the performance of a particular athlete, from a player account. In addition, when opening each player account, the bookmaker checks whether the person seeking to register is of legal age and is not registered on the Ministry of the Interior’s National Gambling Ban List (registration on the National Gambling Ban List is voluntary. Each player who registers voluntarily for a period of 3 years).
The organization of sports betting in France:
In France, the organisation of sports betting is entrusted to operators, most of whom are private for online activities and public for physical point of sale activities.
In concrete terms, only La Française des Jeux deals with sports betting and only the PMU manages horse betting, in a physical point of sale. As for online sports betting, there are currently 13 operators who have received an approval from ARJEL (Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Ligne) to offer their sports betting services in France (I will discuss horse betting in more detail in another article). Among the 13 ARJEL approved operators, there is also the Parions Sport site which belongs to the FDJ and the PMU site which belongs to the group of the same name.
Sports betting has been open to competition since 2010. The activity of online sports betting is regulated by an independent administrative body called ARJEL.
In France, the ARJEL (Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Ligne) is responsible for regulating online gaming, i.e. this independent administrative authority has set specifications that operators who want to obtain or keep a licence must strictly comply with. This ARJEL licence allows an operator to legally offer its services to players on French soil. This license also allows online sports betting sites to promote their games and brand through advertising on several media (TV, radio, press, web, public display).
In France, the online gambling sector is particularly competitive, as there are many players and all are subject to a very high level of taxation (or even too much, in my opinion). Each bookmaker therefore tries, in its own way, to be both visible and attractive, in order to recruit new players and retain those already acquired.
In addition to licensing, ARJEL is responsible for drawing up specifications that online sports betting operators must comply with. Among the important points that appear in the ARJEL specifications are several concerning the security of websites, but also financial transactions or deposits made by players. Online sports betting sites are required to use secure protocols to ensure the reliability of transactions. They must also each have an electronic safe in which their customers’ deposits are placed.
When a new customer registers, he or she must provide a proof of identity and a bank statement that will allow financial flows to be traced in the event of suspected fraud. This system also aims to allow each player to withdraw his funds at any time, when they wish and directly into his bank account.
