Official language: Italian
Population: 59,829,710
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 GBP = 1.0681 EUR
1 USD = 0.6754 EUR

Sports Betting in Italy
Betting on sports events is one of the most popular forms of gambling in Italy. There are numerous legal bookmakers across the country for Italians to use when placing bets. Some of the larger Italian sportsbooks are operated by overseas companies like Ladbrokes and William Hill. They have bet centres set up in cafes, coffee shops, news stands, and, of course, at the tracks.

Horse races are particularly popular events to wager on in Italy. The most famous race in the country is the Palio di Siena, which is held twice a year on July 2nd and August 16th in Siena. Gambling on all sports is legal in Italy, with the exception of dog racing, which was made illegal in 2002.

Online Sports Betting in Italy
Online sporsbooks in Italy are definitely becoming more popular in recent years. Since the Decree on Liberalization (Article 38) of 2007 made all online gambling legal in Italy, the government has been passing out licenses to companies to let them operate online bookmakers in Italy. Many of these licenses were picked up by foreign companies, which take bets online and by telephone as well as at their established kiosks.

Italians may also try to place bets at online spotsbooks located in different counties, though these might be blocked by the Italian government, who prefers to have tight control over how online gambling occurs in Italy. These internet blocks, however, are against EU laws, so the EU is fighting to have them removed. The blocks are not very efficient, so many good sites that accept Italian players get through. These offer a good alternative to Italian internet betting sites.