France’s National Gaming Authority, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), looks set to continue its crackdown on prediction markets as it examines a sponsorship deal between Ligue 1 side OGC Nice and fintech Robinhood.
The scrutiny, reported by L’Équipe, is due to Robinhood being the principal partner and front-of-shirt sponsor of the club. The Nasdaq-listed firm began taking “events contracts” on its own Commodities Futures and Trading Commission (CTFC)-licensed exchange, Rothera, earlier this summer.
It already had somewhat of a predictions presence before the deal with OGC Nice was signed in July 2025, as, in March 2025, Robinhood launched its in-app prediction markets hub via white-label partnerships.
But the combination of the US conglomerate now having its own exclusive platform and the French regulator’s recent attitude towards the predictions sector may have been what has led to this review.
Polymarket ban paints glum picture for Robinhood
In July this year, just before the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain, the ANJ blocked Polymarket as “the site, which attracts a particularly large audience, is promoting an illegal gambling and betting offering”.
France, like many jurisdictions throughout Europe, has not allowed prediction market platforms to operate without obtaining the same licences as traditional gambling operators.
The ANJ has been more vocal than many on the topic, though. In February this year, it condemned the “addictive characteristics” of prediction markets.
It appears that there is no route to France, the third biggest gambling market in Europe according to the Blask Index, for the predictions sector.
Robinhood’s traditional financial platform is widely available across Europe, though its Rothera exchange is unavailable to everyone on the continent.
Promotion of its traditional platform is the likely defence that Robinhood will use against the ANJ, given its standalone predictions portal did not even exist until nearly a year after it signed the deal with OGC Nice.
When the deal was signed, it marked the firm’s first major entry into European football and represented a “personal and meaningful moment” for Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, who studied and began his career in Nice.
There was no mention of the promotion of predictions in the announcement, though that was hardly something that was likely given the sector has been banned in France since November 2024.
Robinhood is yet to expand its European football presence beyond the OGC Nice sponsorship.
As stated above, it does not seem like the ANJ will budge with their stance on predictions. However, that is a possibility in the UK, Europe’s largest gambling market.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has stated that it will consider “whether further work on access to these products is needed”.
That may be a positive for the sector’s hopes in Europe, but there’s clearly still a long way to go before regulators take the same view as the CFTC in the US.
Want to find out more about Prediction Markets? The Global Prediction Market Forum is being held in Lisbon on 1 October. Click here for more details.