Online Sports Betting in Italy Outpacing the Growth of Retail Operators
The gross revenue for sports betting in Italy recorded nearly double the figures in the month of August, with retail betting being undeniably outpaced by its online counterpart. Agimeg, a famous gaming news agency in Italy released official figures accounting for the August sports betting revenues that displayed a whopping 89% rise (that equates to 83 million Euros) in the figures recorded for the same month last year.
While the figures showed an impressive 74.7% rise in retail betting revenues at 43.8 million Euros, the unbelievable 108.6% spike in revenues generated through online betting is what caught the most attention in the gambling community. In other words, while the retail figures recorded an additional wagering of 7.65%, the online betting revenues have been found to be nearly 34% higher than the last year’s rate.
According to the official release of the figures, the Italian online betting website Bet365 recorded the highest revenues, staying at the top of the market with a powerful 18% of the share, followed closely by Planetwin365, the flagship brand of SKS365 capturing a 16% market share.
In addition to this, the online casino operators in Italy too recorded healthy revenue figures with a 30.6% spike from last year at 44.8 million Euros. The top position was held by Lottomatica that covered a 9.08% market share for online casinos, closely followed by PokerStars.it of The Star Group and the Bwin of GVC Holdings recording 8.93% and 6.36% online market share respectively.
The entry fees for the online poker tournament in August also went up 20% with a 5.9 million Euros spike since last year. However, the only revenue fall was recorded in online poker cash games that dipped 3.8% to a total of 5.1 million Euros as compared to the last year’s figures.
Gianfranco Allocca, the digital business manager at Lottomatica remarked in a Gioco News press release that the company was looking forward to the explosive comeback of some of the most popular gamers in the industry.
As the Italian government gears to issue a couple of fresh amendments to the laws of online licensing in the country, the second largest regulated online gambling market in Europe is likely to become more competitive in the near future. While the details of the legislation are yet to be revealed, it is being speculated that the government will offer as many as 120 concessions for a meager price tag of around 200k Euros each.
