Italy’s Online Sports Betting Market Records Growth in August

Italian gaming news agency Agimeg released the official August figures, which reveal the country’s sports betting revenue almost doubled with online betting recording a substantial growth during the month.

Overall sports revenue in August recorded a staggering year-on-year increase of 89% to around €89 million. Both retail and online betting recorded a jump – retail to €43.8 million, an improvement of 74.7% when compared to the same month last year, while online skyrocketed by 108.6% to a total of €39 million.

Since the beginning of the year, retail wagering has gone up by 7.65%, while online betting increased by 34%.

The Top Dogs

Bet365 remains the leader in online betting with the market share of 18%, followed by SKS365-owned Planetwin365 at 16%. According to Planetwin365, this gap should be closed soon, especially after the signing of the new partnership with Serie A side, Napoli SS.

Online casino operators were as equally successful in August, recording an increase in revenue of 30.6% or €44.8 million. Lottomatica leads the market with a 9.08% share, closely followed by PokerStars.it at 8.93%, while the third-placed Sisal is breathing down their necks with 8.81%

Bwin was August’s biggest winner, moving up three spots up the ladder to the fourth position, with an online casino share of 6.36%. On the other hand, William Hill dropped from fifth to eighth place with 5.39%.

Tournaments Go Up, Cash Games Don’t

Online tournament entry fees increased by nearly 20% in August to €5.9 million, a year-to-year increase of 17.8%. The undisputed leader of the online tournament market is PokersStars, with a market share of 70.8%.

Poker cash game revenue dropped by 3.8% to €5.1 million, while the year-to-year fall stands at 5.1%. Almost half of the market share (45.9%) was claimed by PokerStars, while Lottomatica is far behind with 7.1%. The Italian betting and lottery operator has big expectations for the upcoming period, since it will release new poker software in October, along with new sit & go and slots & go options.

The Italian market is currently the Europe’s second largest one, with the prospect of becoming even more competitive in the upcoming months, since the government plans to issue around 120 new online licenses. According to reports, the licenses will be available at price of €200,000 each.