French Regulator Examines Robinhood Sponsorship Of OGC Nice

France’s gambling regulator is reportedly examining Robinhood’s headline sponsorship of Ligue 1 club OGC Nice amid concerns surrounding the financial services company’s growing involvement in prediction markets.

According to L’Équipe, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) is reviewing the multi-year agreement, which makes Robinhood OGC Nice’s principal partner and front-of-shirt sponsor. The partnership was originally announced in July 2025 as Robinhood’s first major sponsorship within European football.

Robinhood’s Prediction Markets Expansion Under Scrutiny

Robinhood had already entered prediction markets before agreeing its OGC Nice partnership, launching an in-app prediction markets hub through third-party partnerships in March 2025.

Its involvement has since expanded significantly. Earlier this summer, Robinhood began offering event contracts through Rothera, its own Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated exchange, including markets connected to sporting events.

However, Robinhood’s Rothera prediction market offering is not available in Europe, while its wider financial services platform is accessible across the region. The original OGC Nice sponsorship announcement also made no reference to prediction markets or their promotion.

The partnership represented a significant European marketing move for Robinhood and held a personal connection for Johann Kerbrat, the company’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, who studied and began his career in Nice.

ANJ Maintains Firm Position On Prediction Markets

The reported review comes amid an increasingly restrictive approach towards prediction markets from the ANJ. In July, the regulator blocked access to Polymarket in France ahead of the World Cup final, describing the platform as promoting an illegal gambling and betting offering.

The ANJ had previously raised concerns over the “addictive characteristics” of prediction markets in February. France requires products deemed to constitute gambling or betting to operate within the country's established regulatory framework rather than allowing prediction market platforms to operate without the relevant gambling authorisation.

Robinhood could therefore distinguish its OGC Nice sponsorship from its prediction market activities on the basis that the agreement promotes its broader financial services brand rather than an event-contract platform. The sponsorship was also agreed before the launch of Rothera.

No outcome from the ANJ's reported examination has yet been announced.

European Regulatory Approaches Continue To Differ

The scrutiny illustrates the regulatory challenges facing prediction market companies as they seek to expand their presence outside the US.

While France has maintained a restrictive approach, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority recently indicated that it would consider “whether further work on access to these products is needed”, potentially leaving open the possibility of a different regulatory approach.

Robinhood has yet to expand its European football sponsorship portfolio beyond OGC Nice, while the ANJ's examination of the agreement could provide further clarity over how France intends to treat the promotion of companies that operate prediction market products outside the country.