Italy’s regulated online sports betting market grew considerably in September, according to the financial results posted by Italian news agency AGIMEG. All licensed online sports betting operators providing their options to residents of the country generated overall turnover of €369 million last month, up 19% from the figures released for August. The amount reported for September also reflected a 37% increase from the same month of the previous year.
The Italian site of sports betting and gaming giant bet365 once again reigned the local market. The gambling operator’s Italian online betting operations generated turnover of €129 million last month. With that said, bet365 held a 35% share of the Italian online sports betting market in September. Eurobet Italy, known to be Gala Coral’s Italian online gambling brand, generated overall turnover of €34.5 million last month.
Sisal, SNAI, and William Hill were the other three operators to comprise the top 5 chart. They reported turnover of €25.6 million, €24.6 million, and €23.6 million, respectively. It is also interesting to note that Betaland – an online gambling brand that was launched only several months ago, made it to top 10 of the operators’ chart posted by AGIMEG with turnover of €10 million.
Based on the money bet by Italian players online, excluding winnings, bet365 led with a 19.37% market share. Eurobet Italia held a 10.96% share. SNAI came next with a 9.79% one, followed by Sisal with a 9.39% and Lottomatica with a 7.39% share.
Operators providing online casino options collectively generated €37.6 million last month, up 32.5% year-on-year. When it comes to online poker, PokerStars is traditionally the leader the provision of this type of gambling options in Italy and that was the casein September, as well. According to the figures posted by Italian media, spending on online cash games dropped 10% year-on-year to €218.4 million. Tournament fees increased 11.7% to €66.5 million. PokerStars held a 74.2% share in Italy’s online poker tournament market, reflecting almost no change from August. However, the world’s largest poker room’s cash game share experienced a slight drop in September. It decreased to 47.3% from a 50.9% share reported for the previous month of the same year.
As it could be seen, Italy has remained one of the highest grossing regulated jurisdictions in Europe. Leading gambling companies have entered the market and it still attracts broad attention from other industry leaders. UK gambling operator Sky Betting & Gaming has been said to be eyeing the local market and has even made first steps towards establishing its brand there.
