Italy’s online sports betting revenue dips in May, while casino holds steady

Online sports betting revenue continued its downward trend, dropping below the €100m mark for the first time since October 2021. This is compared to €153.5m from May 2021. This drastic year-on-year drop is partially explained by restrictions that were in place on the retail sector in May last year, prompting more customers to bet online.

However, retail sports betting also suffered a sudden decline on a month-on-month basis after a period of stability, coming down from €83.5m in April to €66.4m in May.

In contrast to the betting figures, casino revenue ticked slightly upwards to €161.8m from €155.1m. As a result, the igaming revenue product split swayed heavily away from sports betting, taking up only 35.3% of the market in May as opposed to 40.7% in April.

The drops in market share that the biggest four online casino operators by GGR saw last month have mostly stabilised. Snai remained at a 7.3% market share while Lottomatica and Sisal both dropped by 0.1% to 7.2% and 8.4% market shares respectively. Pokerstars faired a little worse as its market share declined to 8.5%, nearly wiping out all the gains it had made in recent months when it rose to a high of 9.7%.

In sports betting, May was a month of individual companies making large gains in market share. The biggest mover in online-only sports betting was PlanetWin365, which went from 9.6% in April to an 11.5% market share in May.

To find the last time the business had such a high market share, we need to go all the way back to November 2020, when it held 12.0% of the market. This increase has also resulted in a larger share of the combined online and retail sports betting market.

This gain in the overall sports betting market for PlanetWin365 was outshone by Goldbet, however, which now hold a market share of 21.3% compared to last month’s 15.5%. This is the first time an operator has breached the 20.0% threshold since Bet365 in April 2020.

Pokerstars appears to have lost some of its momentum in May as its market shares for poker cash games and tournament play both took a dip. Its share of the tournament market dropped down to 44.7% from 48.8% in April, while its share of cash games was down to 41.9% from 43.4% in April. At the same time, and continuing the trend of big gains in May, E-Play 24 made up a lot of ground in both tournament play and cash games. Its market share in tournament play revenue increased to 9.8% from 7.8%. In cash games, the increase was even more pronounced, as its market share increased to 12.5% from 9.6% in April.

Ficom Leisure is a leading European corporate advisory firm specialising in all segments of the betting and gaming sector.

Ficom Leisure also provides exclusive monthly estimates on the Spanish online market in the Spain iGaming Dashboard, including operator market shares across casino, sports betting and poker. It also provides monthly estimates on several US states, including New Jersey in the New Jersey iGaming Dashboard, Pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania iGaming Dashboard and Iowa in the Iowa iGaming Dashboard.