Italian Gambling Market Continues to Grow Despite Fears

Italian regulator AAMS has just released the latest performance statistics in regards to the country’s gambling market. The figures show a steady twenty one percent overall increase at all companies operating under Italian gambling laws.

The growth is largely explained by enormous increase in fixed odds wagering at online sportsbooks in Italy – over 370 percent growth to the EUR 25.6 million level. Online bingo, casino, poker and sports betting revenues in February 2012 grew by almost 21 percent to EUR 78.6 million, which constitutes an 8 percent rise year-on-year.

Poker, skill gaming and online casinos in Italy constitute about seventy percent of all Italian online gambling. Overall they fell eleven percent on the January figures, while casino profits were noticeable low with almost fifteen percent drop.

In terms of operators Lottomatica is continuing to enjoy domination of the online casino sector with almost thirty percent of the market share. Bwin.Party has only 12.2 percent, Sisal – 10.3, SNAI – 9.6, Winga – 8.1 and William Hill a mere 6.1 percent of the Italian market. 888 are particularly disappointed with a drop from over 3 percent to just 2.1 in February.

When it comes to online poker – Poker Stars and Microgame are in command of the market, however the overall sector lost 13 percent in cash games and 6 percent in tournaments.

Online bingo revenues also declined, some 14 percent from January to February, and made up EUR 4.7 million figure. What’s most fearsome is the 24 percent drop in online bingo compared to previous year. In this segment, Gioco Digitale and Bwin.Party lead the way with 26.3 percent of the market share, Lottomatica trail with 19.5, Sisal has 11.3 and Tombola is fourth with 7.4 percent.