Italy iGaming Dashboard – February 2019
After ending last year on a low, the Italian igaming market rebounded sharply in January thanks largely to the recovery of the sports betting vertical.
Total igaming revenue rose to €148.3 in January, an 11% rise on December and a 6.8% year-on-year increase.
After falling dramatically in December – revenues fell 27.7% on a month-on-month basis and an enormous 43.4% on the same month the previous year – online sports betting rose 23.4% on a month-on-month basis, although it was still slightly down on the first month of 2018.
Bet365 extended its lead over PlanetWin365 in the vertical, taking 17.9% of the market, with the second-placed operator seeing its share fall to 12.8%, a significant drop from the previous month’s 14.8%.
The market leader lost some market share in the combined online and retail markets, however, a trend that is likely to accelerate once operators lose the ability to advertise and online-only operators struggle to maintain visibility against those with physical outlets.
Interestingly, PokerStars made its first appearance in the wagering Top 10, taking 2.1% of the market to land in tenth position.
In terms of market share as a whole, however, sports betting is still trailing casino, with the former at 39.15% and the latter at 48.50%. While up only a modest 2% on December, casino enjoyed its best month yet in January, with GGR of €71.9m.
PokerStars maintained its leading position in the vertical, though with a slightly lower 10.59% compared with December’s 11.12%. Lottomatica and Sisal, meanwhile, saw a slight increase in their shares in second and third place, respectively.
Italy’s poker market provided some rare good news last month, with a 21.9% rise in tournament GGR and a 7% rise in cash GGR. PokerStars remained well in front of its nearest competitors in both areas, taking 63.37% of the tournament market and 39.51% of the cash market.
All data and figures are processed by leading European corporate advisory firm Ficom Leisure, a specialist in all segments of the betting and gaming sector.
Ficom Leisure also provides monthly figures on the New Jersey online market in the New Jersey iGaming Dashboard. It also provides quarterly figures on the Spanish online market in the Spain iGaming Dashboard and on the Danish online market in the Denmark iGaming Dashboard.