The French gambling regulator has urged sports bettors to be “extra vigilant” when dealing with online tipsters.
L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux and the Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) have said any claim “suggesting that a service would increase the chances of winning in games of chance” is “misleading in nature.”
Such actions could result in an offence punishable by criminal prosecution, the ANJ and the DGCCRF said.
The ANJ said in a statement: “This advice, delivered free of charge or in the form of paid subscriptions, concerns the analysis and probable results of sporting events aimed at guiding consumer betting.
“In order to encourage the subscription of subscriptions, some operators display a luxurious lifestyle on social networks, claiming that their advice on sports predictions would allow them to earn a lot of money in a short time.”
A study by the ANJ and the DGCCRF in 2020 and 2021 found that 45 per cent of the 11 sites probed said “more or less explicitly” that using tipsters to guide betting choices increases the chance of winning, with four tipsters subsequently the subject of criminal reports.
The watchdogs are increasing their oversight of betting tipsters amid a summer of sport which includes France’s participation in football’s Euro 2024 competition and the French capital Paris hosting the Olympic Games.
