Italian exchange betting decree gets ministerial green light

Italy’s finance minister has approved the country’s decree allowing for regulated exchange betting, giving the green light for operators to introduce the product into the dot.it market.

The approval comes more than a year after the decree was first introduced, and more than nine months after the legislation received the go-ahead from the European Commission.

Only a handful of operators are in a position to introduce exchange betting in Italy, with Microgame – via its agreement with Betdaq – and Betfair among the most prominent.

Betfair director of corporate and legal affairs Martin Cruddace said of the news: “A number of procedural steps remain, but this is an important step towards Italian customers being able to access this innovative sports betting product.

“The Decree allows for national liquidity. A launch of a betting exchange would mean increased investment by Betfair in Italy, which is the second largest market in Europe.”

In its annual report last summer, Betfair identified Italy as one of a number of “priority” markets, describing it as “attractive in terms of scale, growth potential and regulatory outlook.”

The approval for dot.it exchange betting follows the introduction of a number of new products in recent months.

A number of operators launched online slots in the EU Member State in December, with the introduction helping drive up amounts staked in the casino vertical.

Furthermore, since the start of the new year Intralot Italia became one of the first operators to go live in the newly regulated virtual sports arena, while a number of operators are anticipating being able to expand their dot.it bingo offering this year after a consultation period was opened in January.

No launch date has yet been earmarked for the launch of the first Italian exchange offering, and eGR understands that those operators affected still have some work to do before going live.