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The Italian gaming regulator announced the completion of the full liberalization of the Italian sportsbetting market which has been expected during the last decade.
The announcement of the regulator
I anticipated in a previous post the progress made by the Italian gaming authority in the liberalization of the sportsbetting market. But such process has now a starting date. The Italian gaming authority declared that on 21 March 2016 the new protocol of communication for sportsbetting will come into force and, more importantly, they will stop publishing the bets and events of the AAMS official list.
What are the consequences on the Italian sportsbetting market?
This means that from that date operators will start offering their markets only under the rules of the so called “palinsesto complementare” also with reference to bets and events that up until yesterday were included in the AAMS official list. The major advantage of such change is that operators will have a full control on their offering and will manage the results of the bets and the timing of payment of winnings.
What is the opportunity for operators?
This is happening just after the recent change in the taxation for sportsbetting to 18% of the GGR for land based sportsbetting and 22% of the GGR for online sportsbetting. Likewise the upcoming award of the new betting shop and online licenses makes the change even more interesting.
What is the data of the Italian market?
The GGR achieved by the online gaming market in 2015 in Italy was of € 820,906,784 with an increase of 12.8% compared to 2014. The GGR per online product in 2015 was the following:
- poker and casino games € 482,613,228 with an increase of 8.6% compared to 2014 of which casino games achieved € 327,577,075 with an increase of 27.3% compared to 2014;
- sports betting € 266,681,104 with an increase of 24.7% compared to 2014; and
- bingo € 25,264,582 with a reduction of 7% compared to 2014.
In relation to the total sports betting market combining land based and online, the GGR has been of € 768,260,444.26 in 2015. This data shows a quite healthy market.
