Italy iGaming Dashboard – August 2017: Planetwin365 shortens Bet365 lead
Planetwin365 increased its share of the Italian online sports betting market from 11.3% to 16.9% in July, closing the gap on long-time leader Bet365, according to estimates exclusively provided to iGaming Business by leading gaming sector advisory firm Ficom Leisure.
July’s performance follows Planetwin365 significantly increasing its share of the dot.it sports betting market from 7.7% to 11.3% during the month of June.
However Bet365, which lacks the retail presence of Planetwin365, also increased its share by one percentage point, from 19.5% to 20.6%, during the month. Snai also rebounded to reclaim third spot ahead of Eurobet, increasing its share from 6.7% to 8.7%.
Total gross gaming revenues from the dot.it market reached €95.8m in July, up 6% on the prior month, driven by increases in the two largest verticals of casino (€44.4m) and sports betting (€38.2m).
On the broader betting trends in the regulated market, Christian Tirabassi, senior partner at Ficom Leisure, said: “The wagers placed on sports betting in July went down again due to the lack of major football events in Europe. However, sports betting GGR slightly increased, producing a healthy GGR margin for the operators (11% for online vs. 26% for land-based operators). The average sport betting margin in H1 2017 was 8% for online vs 15% for land-based.”
In online casino, PokerStars held onto the lead it established in the prior month of June after just over two years offering casino games in the market, marginally increasing its share from 8.8% to 9%. It however failed to pull away from rivals Lottomatica (8.5%) and Sisal (8.2%).
Tirabassi added: “The Italian online and mobile casino market is steadily growing, reaching €269m in H1 2017, compared to €209m in H1 2016 (+29%).”
The poker specialist retained its massive lead in poker tournaments (70.8%) and ring games (45.5%), with the next largest operators back on 5.4% (Sisal) and 5.7% (Lottomatica) respectively.
Click on the drop down options to compare how Italy's igaming market has performed on a monthly or annual basis. Revenue figures for online-only sports betting start from October 2016, with operator market shares from July 2017.
All data and figures are provided by leading European corporate advisory firm Ficom Leisure, a specialist in all segments of the betting and gaming sector.