Italy’s online sports betting growth outpacing retail wagers

Italy’s sports betting revenue nearly doubled in August, with online betting growth handily outpacing that of its retail rival.

Official figures published by Italian gaming news agency Agimeg show August’s overall sports revenue coming in just shy of €83m, up 89% from the same month last year. Retail betting revenue improved 74.7% to €43.8m while online betting shot up 108.6% to €39m. For the year to date, retail wagering revenue is up 7.65% while online bets are 34% higher.

Bet365’s Italian site maintained its status as online sports betting’s top dog with nearly 18% of the market, with SKS365’s Planetwin365 brand not far back at 16%. Planetwin365 hopes to close that gap through even greater brand exposure, including this week’s announcement of a two-year official betting partnership with Serie A footballers Napoli.

Italy’s online casino operators also enjoyed a healthy August, reporting revenue of €44.8m, a 30.6% year-on-year improvement. Lottomatica earned top marks with a 9.08% casino market share, narrowly outpacing The Stars Group’s PokerStars.it at 8.93%, although Sisal is nipping at both companies’ heels with 8.81%.

GVC Holdings’ Bwin brand placed fourth with a 6.36% online casino share, allowing the company to move up three spots on the chart. Bwin’s gain was William Hill’s loss, as the company slid from fifth to eighth place with 5.39%.

August’s online poker tournament entry fees were up nearly 20% year-on-year to €5.9m, bringing the year-to-date tournament tally to just under €55m (+17.8%). As ever, PokerStars maintained its vice-like grip on the tournament market with a share of 70.8%.

Online poker cash games weren’t as fortunate in August, with revenue falling 3.8% to €5.1m, with a year-to-date total of €46m (-5.1%). PokerStars claimed 45.9% of August’s cash game business, with runner-up Lottomatica a distant second at 7.1%.

Lottomatica’s digital business manager Gianfranco Allocca recently told GiocoNews that his company had seen “a great return of important gamers on our gaming platform” and Lottomatica hopes to build on this momentum by releasing new poker software in October, as well as new sit & go and slots & go options.

Italy’s regulated online market – already the second largest in Europe – is about to become even more competitive as the government prepares to issue a new round of online licenses later this month. Details have yet to be finalized, but reports have it that around 120 concessions will be available at the low, low price of €200k apiece.