Italy boosted by casino and sportsbook growth
Two verticals continued to power growth of country's online market in May despite ongoing poker decline
The expansion of Italy’s online gaming market continues to be driven by growth in casino and sportsbook with gross gaming revenues (GGR) for the two verticals increasing by 32% and 22% respectively in May.
According to figures seen by eGaming Review, Italy’s online casino GGR increased by almost a third year-on-year to 26.6m during the month as the market continues to feel the benefits of recent efforts to curb unlicensed activity.
And sportsbook also enjoyed a strong May with GGR up by more than a fifth to 21.3m, during what was a busy final month of the domestic football season.
Moreover, sports betting turnover more than doubled year-on year from 105.5m to 239.1m.
This significant increase is primarily due to the liberalisation around in-running betting and the addition of licensees such as bet365, which increased the size of the market considerably upon arrival last September.
However, poker continued to act as a drag on overall market growth in May with GGR from cash games down 26% to 6.6m, although tournament games fared better as it remained static on 5.7m.
The figures continued the recent Italian narrative with casino and sportsbook enjoying a period of sustained growth and usurping a struggling poker vertical, once the bedrock of the country’s online industry.
Sportsbook may well receive further boost in the coming months with a revenue-based tax framework expected to replace the current turnover model by early next year.