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The data provided by the Italian gaming regulator at the ICE gaming conference set major expectations especially in the light of the recent regulatory changes.
The findings of the ICE gaming conference
The ICE gaming conference was extremely busy, also because of the gaming event that we arranged before its beginning. However, the conference led to some intesting findings. As reported by GiocoNews, the Italian gaming regulator declared that the growth of the Italian online gaming market in 2015 was
- Of 25% in relation to sportsbetting and
- Of 27% in relation to casino games
if compared to the performance of the same products in 2014.
What led to such growth?
The reasons of such growth have to be found so far in
- The full liberalization of the sportsbetting sector which was quite restricted in the past in terms of product offering and
- The reduction of the size of the unlicensed market together with
- The already achieved completion of the product offering which now includes all the most relevant games.
What to expect for the future?
The expectations for the future are optimistic. At the beginning of 2016, the budget law provided for the change in the taxation on
- online sports betting to 22% of the GGR and
- skill games, including poker tournament and fantasy sport games, to 20% of the GGR.
This change alligned the taxation of these products to the one applicable to online casino and cash poker games which are already subject to a 20% GGR tax. Also, with effect from 1 January 2017, the taxation on online bingo will also become 20% of GGR.
Finally the Italian regulator mentioned that they are working on a potential sharing liquidity with the UK which would open the Italian online gaming market to the .COM platform which would further boost the growth of the market.
And new licenses will be available
A tendering process for the award of 120 new online gaming and betting licenses will be launched by 31 July 2016. The licenses will last up to 31 December 2022, their price will be of € 200,000 and the tendering rules are expected to be similar to the ones of previous tendering processes.
