Polymarket has said it will challenge France’s decision to block access to its website, opening a new legal front in the widening European crackdown on prediction markets.
The company issued its response five days after France’s gambling regulator, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), announced that internet providers had been ordered to prevent users from reaching the platform.
“We are disappointed by the French gaming authority’s (ANJ’s) sudden decision to unilaterally block our website — we intend to challenge this decision through the legal process in France,” Polymarket said.
The ANJ said the order was made on 16 July because the site promoted gambling services that were not authorised in France. It said Polymarket’s homepage, where prices linked to elections, sport, weather and other events are displayed in real time, acted as an advertising channel for an illegal gambling offer.
“This website, which has a particularly large audience, promotes an illegal gambling offer,” the regulator said.
A dispute over access
Polymarket said it had already stopped users in France from trading in November 2024, while continuing to allow them to view markets and prices for information.
“We were therefore surprised at the ANJ decision to block access to our entire website because their measure targets people going to Polymarket purely for information, not to trade,” the company said.
The regulator takes a different view. It said the earlier geoblocking prevented financial transactions from French territory but had been bypassed in practice. It also argued that publishing live odds could itself amount to promotion of an unauthorised gambling service.
Under French law, advertising an illegal betting or gambling site can carry a fine of €100,000. The same penalty may apply to anyone who distributes odds or returns from an unauthorised site for promotional purposes.
The ANJ said Polymarket had continued to attract a large French audience despite the restrictions. In June, it recorded 578,751 visits from France and 205,057 unique visitors, according to figures cited by the regulator.
Separate data supplied by Blask, a market intelligence platform, points to a sharp rise in broader interest. Its index for prediction markets in France was up 973.6% year on year. The measure tracks non-branded search activity that indicates informed interest in a category rather than visits to a particular operator.
Gambling or financial innovation?
At the heart of the dispute is the legal identity of prediction markets. Polymarket describes its contracts as blockchain-based financial instruments whose prices are set by users trading with one another.
“Prices are determined by market activity, not set by an operator, and participants trade directly with one another in a peer-to-peer structure,” the company said.
It added: “Polymarket holds no position in any market and does not profit from any outcome.”
French authorities, however, classify prediction sites as illegal gambling platforms. In February, the ANJ said prediction sites were not authorised in France and exposed users to risks including addiction and integrity concerns because they operated without regulation.
The regulator also raised concerns about identity checks and the reliability of information used to settle markets. It referred to an investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime section on 4 May after weather sensors may have been tampered with in connection with bets.
“Some bets offered on this platform appeared to have been distorted: weather bets revealed that weather sensors may have been hacked,” the ANJ said.
The authority said the case exposed the absence of adequate know-your-customer checks for users in France and elsewhere in Europe.
Polymarket said it remained in talks with French officials and the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit. It also struck a conciliatory note, saying recent discussions had been “constructive and encouraging”.
The company’s challenge will test whether a platform can separate access to market information from participation in betting when regulators regard the display of prices as promotion. France’s order also adds to restrictions imposed across Europe, including in Italy, Romania, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands.
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