Paying to receive sports betting advice is strongly discouraged. The National Gaming Authority (ANJ), responsible for regulating games of chance, and the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), responsible for consumer protection, have signed a press release to warn of the dangers of sports betting advisors.
“Any allegation suggesting that a service would increase the chances of winning at games of chance is misleading in nature” and could be “liable to criminal prosecution”, the ANJ and the DGCCRF recalled this Tuesday. The two authorities “call on consumers to exercise the greatest caution with regard to sports betting advice sites” in the context of Euro 2024 football and ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“A luxurious lifestyle” to convince people of the relevance of the advice
They target in particular “the multiplication of sports betting advice offers” by prognosticators or “tipsters” particularly active on social networks. They provide “advice”, free of charge or via subscriptions, relating to “the analysis and probable results of sporting events”, sometimes displaying “a luxurious lifestyle” to convince of the relevance of this advice.
“In 2020 and 2021, the DGCCRF, in conjunction with the ANJ, carried out a survey targeting the fairness of practices in the online betting sector”, and five of the eleven sites monitored “affirmed, more or less explicitly, that using the services of tipsters increases the chances of winning.” Four tipsters were “the subject of criminal reports”.
DGCCRF and ANJ explain in their joint press release that they have signed a “cooperation protocol” at the end of 2023 to “strengthen the coordination of their actions in terms of consumer protection in the gambling sector”.
