ParionsSport launched We Are the Bettors in France in September 2019 with agency Rosapark, repositioning sports bettors as expert, community-driven fans rather
ParionsSport Bets on Community Identity to Reframe French Sports Gambling
ParionsSport launched "We Are the Bettors" in France on 1 September 2019, a film-led advertising campaign created by agency Rosapark that repositioned the brand's core audience as a community of knowledgeable, emotionally invested sports enthusiasts rather than passive gamblers.
The campaign arrived precisely at the start of the French football season, a moment of heightened sporting attention that gave the creative work immediate cultural relevance. Produced under its French title "Nous sommes les parieurs," the initiative comprised two films — one addressing online betting and one addressing retail betting — distributed across television, web, video-on-demand, and outdoor advertising in France, as documented by packshotmag.com. The dual-film structure acknowledged that ParionsSport, as the sports-betting brand of Française des Jeux, served distinct audiences across both digital and physical channels.
In strategic terms, the campaign departed from the spectacle-first playbook that had defined earlier sports-betting advertising in France. Rather than dramatising the thrill of a winning moment or the scale of potential returns, "We Are the Bettors" centred its proposition on collective identity — the idea that bettors are a defined, self-aware group who deploy sports knowledge to anticipate results. This framing aligned betting with the performance and fitness category's language of expertise, preparation, and passion, distancing ParionsSport from the imagery of pure chance. The campaign contained three media assets in total and was submitted to industry archives within the period documented by adsoftheworld.com. Clapboard rates the campaign 57 out of 100, reflecting a strategically coherent brief that finds partial but not complete expression in its creative execution.
ParionsSport entered its 2019 campaign cycle inside one of Europe's most competitive regulated betting markets. In France, sports betting represented 62% of total gross gaming revenue in 2019, up from 57% in 2018, according to the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ). That growth trajectory made the French sports-betting sector a high-stakes commercial arena, with licensed operators competing aggressively for the same base of engaged sports fans.
The competitive landscape facing ParionsSport was formidable. According to igamingbusiness.com, Betclic held an estimated 28% share of French online sports betting in 2019, while Unibet accounted for approximately 25% and Winamax for around 20%. Against these established players, ParionsSport — operating as the sports-betting arm of the state-linked Française des Jeux — needed a brand narrative that could cut through without simply outspending rivals. The strategic answer, as developed by Rosapark, was to compete on identity rather than odds or prizes.
The consumer insight underpinning "We Are the Bettors" recognised that sports fans who bet do not primarily think of themselves as gamblers — they think of themselves as analysts, supporters, and experts whose predictions are an extension of their sporting knowledge. By naming and celebrating this self-image explicitly, ParionsSport could create a sense of belonging that transactional advertising cannot manufacture. In the French online sports-betting market, where ANJ data shows stakes reached €1.199 billion in Q2 2019 alone across thirteen licensed operators, the opportunity to build emotional brand equity alongside market share was substantial and strategically sound.
The creative execution of "We Are the Bettors" rests on the directorial vision of Daisy Zhou, who helmed both films for production company Boogie Nights, as documented by packshotmag.com. Zhou's approach drew on the visual grammar of sports documentary and reportage — an aesthetic choice that reinforced the campaign's core argument that bettors are active, knowledgeable participants rather than onlookers defined by luck.
The creative team at Rosapark was led by executive creative directors Jean-François Sacco and Gilles Fichteberg, with copywriting by Nicolas Gadesaude and strategic planning by Sonia Guitz, according to packshotmag.com. This combination of experienced creative leadership and a strategically grounded planner is evident in the campaign's disciplined focus: every executional choice serves the identity proposition rather than indulging in visual spectacle for its own sake. The films avoid the slow-motion goal celebrations and euphoric crowd shots that populate category advertising, instead turning the camera toward the bettors themselves — their concentration, their conversations, their reading of the game.
The sonic identity of the campaign reinforces this positioning. As reported by packshotmag.com and infoplay.info, the soundtrack features a reworked track by Else incorporating rapper A2H, a musical choice that connects the world of sports betting to contemporary French popular culture and lends the films an energy that feels earned rather than imposed. The French-language production, distributed in France across television, web, video-on-demand, and outdoor channels, maintained consistency across formats. The campaign represented a clear creative departure from ParionsSport's prior agency relationship: BETC had previously created "Encore plus dans le match" in May 2017, directed by Henry Littlechild and produced by Bandits Production, a campaign that digitally inserted fans into match footage, per Stratégies and danstapub.com. Rosapark's 2019 work shifted the lens from immersive spectacle to communal self-recognition.
No verified performance data for the "We Are the Bettors" campaign is publicly available in the form of brand-tracking uplift, market-share movement, or media-efficiency metrics attributable directly to the 2019 work. Assessment therefore rests on structural and strategic analysis.
The campaign's core strength lies in the clarity and defensibility of its strategic territory. By grounding the advertising in the self-image of the target audience rather than in product features or promotional incentives, Rosapark created a brand platform with longevity — the kind of identity-based positioning that accumulates value across media cycles rather than peaking at launch. The dual-film structure, separating online and retail betting audiences, also demonstrated operational sophistication appropriate to ParionsSport's channel complexity as the sports-betting brand of Française des Jeux.
The timing of the campaign's 1 September 2019 launch, coinciding with the opening of the French football season, represents sound media planning. In a market where ANJ data places quarterly online sports-betting stakes at €1.199 billion for Q2 2019, landing brand messaging at the moment of maximum fan engagement is a structurally efficient decision. Where the campaign scores less strongly — reflected in Clapboard's rating of 57 out of 100 — is in the degree to which its creative execution fully realises the ambition of its strategic brief. The films articulate the community proposition competently, but the emotional intensity that would elevate competent execution to memorable advertising remains only partially achieved.
"We Are the Bettors" is a 2019 French advertising campaign created for ParionsSport by agency Rosapark. Launched on 1 September 2019, it used two films distributed across television, web, video-on-demand, and outdoor media in France to position sports bettors as an expert, knowledge-driven community rather than passive gamblers.
Director Daisy Zhou helmed both films for production company Boogie Nights. The Rosapark creative team was led by executive creative directors Jean-François Sacco and Gilles Fichteberg, with copywriter Nicolas Gadesaude and strategic planner Sonia Guitz, as documented by packshotmag.com.
ParionsSport timed the campaign to coincide with the start of the French football season, maximising relevance among sports fans at the moment of peak engagement. The French sports-betting market was highly competitive in 2019, with Betclic, Winamax, and Unibet among the major rivals, according to igamingbusiness.com.
The 2017 campaign, "Encore plus dans le match," was created by BETC and directed by Henry Littlechild, digitally inserting fans into live match footage, per strategies.fr. Rosapark's 2019 work shifted focus from spectacle to collective bettor identity, celebrating expertise and community rather than physical immersion in sport.
In France, sports betting represented 62% of total gross gaming revenue in 2019, according to the ANJ. Betclic held an estimated 28% share of online sports betting, Unibet approximately 25%, and Winamax around 20%, per igamingbusiness.com, making the market among the most contested in Europe for ParionsSport.
Clapboard rates "We Are the Bettors" 57 out of 100. The score reflects a strategically coherent brief — grounding advertising in bettor identity rather than promotional mechanics — that finds only partial expression in the creative execution, which is competent but does not fully deliver the emotional intensity its strategy demands.
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