Italy exchange regulations to come into force this month
Regulations published in Official Gazette set tax rate at 20% GPT
Italy’s exchange betting regulations are due to come into force in two weeks’ time, after they were published in the country’s Official Gazette yesterday.
The Italian finance minister approved an exchange betting decree in March, nine months after the decree was approved by the European Commission. This week’s publication provides “general rules on remote fixed odds betting with direct interaction between players, on sporting events and non-sporting events”.
It sets the tax rate for exchange betting at 20 per cent of gross profits, in effect 20% of commission taken by exchange operators, with the figure regarded as more favourable than the turnover tax imposed on fixed-odds sports betting operators in the EU Member State.
Operators with an exchange offering will be able to offer betting on the same sporting and non-sporting events as existing sports operators. However, as lawyer Giulio Coraggio explained in his Gaming Tech Law blog last month, bets will soon be able to be placed on events not included in regulatory body AAMS’ official ‘Palinsesto’ list.
At present only Microgame (through its partnership with Betdaq) and Betfair have expressed a keen interest in launching an exchange offering into the market.
Martin Cruddace, Betfair’s director of corporate and legal affairs, described March’s ministerial approval for the decree as “an important step towards Italian customers being able to access this innovative sports betting product”.
Italy’s regulated sports betting market saw gross gaming revenue fall by 20% year-on-year in 2012 due to what AAMS described as “particularly high payout levels”, coming in at 166.9m, while horse betting was flat year-on-year at 11.9m. The sports betting vertical accounted for 22.3% of overall dot.it GGR in 2012, with online activities accounting for 31.3% of Italy’s overall sports betting market.
In December last year, Lottomatica led the way for Italian sports betting market share with 15.6%, followed by Snai (11.3%), Sisal (9.5%) and bwin Italia (7.8%).
In addition to the progress of exchange betting, AAMS has this year approved regulatory measures concerning betting on virtual events. Luigi Magistro, the deputy director of the country’s customs authority, pledged last month that tax levels on egaming activities on the country would not be increased.