Online sports betting activity rose in Italy

While online operators reported good results during April operations, retail betting decreased 8 per cent.

Italy.- Italy’s online gambling market has been improving its results for quite some time, and this time it was online sports betting’s turn to be under the spotlight. April operations saw revenue improve 3.7 per cent to €58.7 million, while retail revenue decreased 8.1 per cent.

Italian gaming news outlet Agimeg reported on Friday that sports betting turnover was €955 million in April, 5 per cent less than the same month in 2017. Betting revenue also decreased 2 per cent year-on-year to €146.5 million. However, online betting revenue rose 3.7 per cent to €58.7 million last month, setting an online betting revenue mark of €221 million for the first four months of the year, a 47.6 per cent increase. Retail revenue fell 8.1 per cent but considering the first four months of 2018, the results show that it is up 45.6 per cent to €310.5 million.

Virtual betting reported a turnover of €139 million and €20.5 million in revenue during last month’s operations. Moreover, online casino’s April revenue stood at €58.1 million, a 28.6 per cent increase, bringing the year-to-date results to €233.3 million, a 39.7 per cent increase.

Last month it was reported that it was reported that at least 80 online gambling firms passed the initial scrutiny of Italy’s gambling regulator Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM). PokerStars, Videoslots, Lottomatica, bet365 and Luckia are some of the operators that applied for a gaming licence in Italy. Italy’s iGaming market currently features 45 gaming operators that have extended licences after they expired two years ago. Another 47 companies have licences until the end of 2022. If the 80 licences get the necessary approvals, Italy would have a total of 172 licensees.