Reports ITALY
ITALY:VITALSTATISTICS Capital: Rome Population: 60,157,214 (July 2009) Land Area: 301,340
sq.km Median age: 43.3 years Languages: Italian (with German, French and Slovene minorities along the borders) Currency: Euros Religions: Roman Catholic (90%) plus Protestant, Jewish and some Muslim communities. Government: Republic Chief of State: President Giorgio Napolitano (since 2006) Head of Government: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (since 2008) Cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the Prime Minister and approved by the President Elections: President is elected by an electoral college consisting of both houses of parliament and 58 regional representatives for a seven year term. Prime Minister is appointed by the President and confirmed by parliament.
Gioco is the biggest online poker and sports betting brand via its
www.giocodigitale.it site in Italy and has a market share of around 20 per cent.
The company was founded by CEO and entrepreneur Carlo Gualandri and was the first operator to launch tournament poker in Italy in September 2008.
Gioco today has more than 80,000 active customers per month and also offers sports betting and instant lotteries although 94 per cent of its total income in the first half of 2009 came from its poker products.
Gioco saw first half year 2009 total income of €20.1m (2008 full year equalled €13.7m). Bwin currently has about seven per cent share of the Italian market.
Norbert Teufelberger of Bwin said: ”Gioco Digitale ideally positions Bwin to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the booming Italian online gaming market which is sustained by modern, pro-active regulation.”
Bwin entered the Italian market and was the first company to have skill games in Italy with payment authorised by the AAMS for real money skill games.
From the beginning of 2009 Bwin has been offering eight games including solitaire, Blackjack, 3 card poker, Eldorado, Yatzy, Formula 0-01,
Backgammon and 8-ball billiard.
Rumour has it that other big players such as Britain’s PartyGaming and 888 are also looking at investing in European companies.
Meanwhile GameAccount Network, a software developer and supplier, has signed a multi year software licensing agreement with Lottomatica for its online skill games.
The games are due to be launched this autumn and will include poker dice, gin rummy, backgammon and dominoes.
In 2000 1,000 shops were authorised for sports betting and 671 for horses and until 2002 these
weremanaged by the Italian National
Olympic Committee
and kept out foreign competitionwhich
sparked legal battles with Stanley Leisure.
On the sports front the most popular sport in Italy is football and Serie A is one of the most famous competitions in the world.
Italy’s national football team is the second most successful team in the world with four World Cup victories since 1934.
Earlier this year GameAccount also launched a range of free-to-play skill based games for Sisal including Solitaire, poker dice, blackjack and backgammon. Lottomatica was GameAccount’s sixth Italian operator it had signed up for the launch of cash skill games.
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