Casino & Slots Big Winners in Italy

Casino and slots were the biggest winners in Italy’s gambling scene in December, the latest figures reveal.

The sector increased spending by 17 per cent to reach revenue of €206.1m – a big jump from the previous month’s total of €176.1m.

The success wasn’t equally shared though, with revenue for igaming down two per cent on November’s figures. The figure of €315.8m is, however, 1.2 per cent up on an annual basis when compared to December 2021.

Breaking the sector down further, online sports betting actually lost as much as one third of it is market share in December compared to November. That left it with just 27.4 per cent of spending in the gambling sector and a continuing downward trend. Bet365, however, has improved its performance, finishing the year on a market share high of 13.1 per cent.

The leader in the online casino and slots division in Italy is Lottomatica/Goldbet. The company has a 12.4 per cent of the market share. And it’s not only in casino and slots that they dominate. They are also top of the online and retail sports betting league, enjoying a market share of 22.1 per cent in that particular sector too. Others in the sector, such as Multigioco, made news with a one per cent market share. But Betaland didn’t fare quite so well in December. It fell to the bottom of the ratings with a disappointing market share of 0.9 per cent.

When it comes to online poker tournaments, the leader in the pack is PokerStars. This is despite a decrease of 4.7 per cent, bringing its share for December to 42.87 per cent. Both Snai and Lottomatica pushed E-Play 24 down to bottom place. The biggest jump was by rising star Lottomatica, although Snai still sits higher in the revenue league with a 9.14 per cent market share.

At present, Italian companies pay 24 per cent tax on revenue from online gambling. The tax on retail betting is less, at just 20 per cent. A new law, which came in to force at the end of October 2022, also decreed that there should be a €1 minimum bet, together with a cap of €50,000 for fixed-odds bets.

The country’s sports betting has suffered financially in recent years due to a marketing ban introduced in 2019. As a result of the advertising and promotional black-out football teams also lost out on sponsorship deals.