ReportsITALY
It is thought the growth of skill games which peaked during its first nine months since September 2008 when it was introduced will now begin to peter out as the boom saw players ‘return’ from unauthorised sites whilst summer also heralds a drop in players.
The total collected in 2008 was almost €1.5bn. This biggest earner was sports betting with just over €1bn alone.
Online poker and Skill Games were launched in September last year and have already seen €1bn in takings during the first half of 2009 and is fast becoming the largest online game ever played in Italy.
The year 2008 saw the first online poker tournaments launched by Italian operators Gioco Digitale and Microgaming whilst Bwin and Lottomatica also set up online poker products whilst large poker rooms PokerStars and PartyGaming also received licences in Italy.
It is suggested that the monthly turnover for poker tournaments was around €65m last year (despite the fact that the AAMS only allows tournament open to local residents) and was predicted to rise to €400m by the end of 2009.
Meanwhile the Italian government very recently enlarged the scope of the online games within the regulatory framework to now incorporate casino games which includes cash poker giving the AAMS the possibility to offer these games from next year.
Online Betting Revenues Provider
Lottomatica Microgame SNAI
Matchpoint Bwin
GiocoDigitale (Bwin) Altri
TOTAL
Collection(July2009) €11.7m
€9.9m €5.6m €5.4m €3.6m €2.6m €4.9m €43.7m
remotely include Fixed odds sport betting, betting, instant lottery, national and international horse racing (since March 2008), pools and tote (since March 2008) and games of skill (since September 2008).
During the first six months of 2009 the
MarketShare 26.8%
22.7% 12.8% 12.4% 8.2% 5.9% 11.2%
total amount collected was €1.7bn (the estimated total amount for 2009 year end is €2.2bn) The biggest earner was skill games with €1bn in six months which has taken a massive 71 per cent of the online market share followed by sports betting (23.3%), racebook betting (3%), scratchcards (1.7%), horse racing (0.9%) and pools/tote (0.3%)
Online poker and Skill Gameswere launched in
September last year and have already
seen€1bn in takings during the first half of 2009 and is fast
becoming the largest online game ever played in Italy.
During the month of June 2009 some 7.5 million poker tournaments were played with 27.5 million tickets sold. Tickets cost between 50c and €100 and the average ticket price is around €6.87 with a total of €166m on average paid out in prize money during that same month.
Online poker is booming. In May 2009 alone collections reached €197.6m compared to €184.7 in April. Between January and June 2009 Italian online poker has collected €845.7m
In anticipation of this several companies are now looking at the Italian online poker market. Austria’s Bwin is planning to raise its market share in the Italian online poker market and in September completed the acquisition of Gioco Digitale, one of the biggest online poker operators in the country.
The deal is worth 2.3 million Bwin shares and €25m cash plus a further €20m cash after the audited accounts for 2009 are presented and a further €5m on the second anniversary of the deal.
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