Online slots to launch in Italy
Operators now able to apply for approval to offer slots " approved firms will be able to go live on 3 December.
Italian regulator AAMS has opened up the licensing process for operators to apply for approval to operate online slots in the market, with the first firms to go live on two fixed dates at the beginning of December.
In new guidelines released by AAMS today, the regulator explains the launch of online slots will be “limited to the first (3rd) and third Monday (17th) of December 2012,” and from January 2013, companies will be able to launch the first working day after securing approval.
The decision to set a fixed launch date mirrors the regulation of cash poker and online casino, both of which were approved in February 2011, but did not launch until July of the same year. This was seen as a way of ensuring all operators had a period to prepare for the launch and to avoid giving large European operators a competitive advantage over their Italian counterparts.
The long awaited approval of online slots follows last month’s European Commission ratification of a ministerial decree to allow exchange betting in Italy, first introduced by AAMS in January this year.
Following the legalisation of cash poker and casino, skill games, card games and games of chance have almost single-handedly propped up the Italian egaming market, which has seen rapid decline in almost every other vertical. Sports and horse betting have been the hardest hit, with gross gaming revenue (GGR) from sports betting plummeting 71.7% year-on-year to 18.96m in official figures released for January. In contrast, revenues for skill games rose to 52.2m in the same month, with amounts wagered up to 1.4bn. By March, however, skill games GGR had fallen to 43.2m, 18.8% down on January’s takings.
The contrasting fortunes have led to suggestions that the introduction of skill games had cannibalised sports and horse betting revenues, but analyst Fabio Pavan of Mediobanca believes that the introduction of slots would not further harm the vertical: “The main negative impact came with the introduction of cash poker and casino last July, so I do not believe that slots will have a further negative effect, as the sector has already been hit.
“It is perhaps too early to say whether slots will put further pressure on sports betting and horse racing, and I think the market will continue to grow. Last year it reached 8bn in amounts wagered and will easily be able to exceed 12bn this year,” Pavan explained.
He noted however that while the sector would be able to grow “there will be limited impact on concessionaires [licensees] due to the high payout rate on gambling products.”
The announcement comes after yesterday’s news that director general of AAMS Raffaele Ferrara had stepped down from his role after almost four years as head of the regulatory body. Ferrara has reportedly requested a transfer to another department of the country’s Ministry of Finance. A replacement is yet to be announced.