LottoItalia consortium seals new agreement to run Italy Lotto

Italy Lotto has entered into a nine-year contract with the LottoItalia consortium.

Italy.- LottoItalia has formerly signed its new agreement to operate Italy Lotto. The consortium, which is led by Brightstar Lottery (the former IGT) and also comprises Switzerland-based Allwyn along with the Italian firms Arianna 2001 and Novomatic Italia has signed a new nine-year contract to run the main Italian lottery until 2034.

The Italian regulator, the ADM, confirmed Lottoitalia as the winner of the Italian lottery tender in July. Brightstar, as IGT, has operated the lottery for over 30 years. It notes that Italy Lotto is the largest fixed odds number game in the world.

The licence renewal comes hot on the heels of the launch of the revamped regulatory framework for online gambling in Italy, which has led to the closure of skins sites. Some 46 companies hold 52 licences on the streamlined market.

Renato Ascoli, Brightstar’s CEO of Global Lottery, said: “We are delighted to finalize our agreement with ADM and honored to continue being entrusted to operate Italy Lotto, one of the world’s largest lotteries. We look forward to driving Lotto wager growth with new player touchpoints and digitization of the retail experience, growing iLottery sales, and providing iCasino, sports betting, and other digital games to players in Italy.”

Brightstar is up against OPAP in contention for the Greek national lottery. The two operators are competing for exclusive operational rights to a package of state lotteries for at least 10 years. OPAP’s Hellenic Lotteries has run the state lottery since it began in 1990. That pits Brightstar against its Lottoitalia partner Allwyn, which has announced a merger with OPAP to create the world’s second biggest listed gambling operator.