Italy’s online poker market continues to decline sharply while other online gaming segments witness strong growth according to latest figures released by a local media outlet.
Agimeg.it, a gaming news agency has revealed that online sports betting revenue in Italy was over €432 million in February, while land-based betting was at €394 million.
Overall, the revenue was an increase of 30 percent over same period last month and 7 percent higher than January’s €775 million.
The top gainer was Bet365 with revenue of €143.3 million in February, accounting for over 30 percent of the total market. The other leading operators remained the same as last month – Ladbrokes-Coral’s Eurobet netted €41million, Sisal gained €31.4million, Snai was at €30.7 million and William Hill clocked revenue of €25.5 million.
Online casino gaming has been growing robustly, increasing by around 25 percent to reach €41.1million. The top five brands remained same as last month with Lottomatica leading at 10.7 percent share. Others were Sisal at 8.6 percent, PokerStars at 8.3percent followed by Bwin with 6.4 percent and Snai at 6.1 percent. British gaming giant William Hill has seen its share fall by over 25 percent in the last 12 months. Sisal managed to grow by nearly 30 percent over previous month while PokerStars has seen a 28.6 percent jump in its share.
Online Poker in contrast has suffered a steep decline. Tournament fees in February dropped by 16.5 percent over last month while cash games declined by 11 per cent. PokerStars continued to rule the roost in both segments, but it has seen a drop in its share. The online poker giant saw its tournament segment drop by around five points to 42.5 percent, while in cash games it dropped by two points to 69.2 percent.
According to government data, the total gambling market in 2016 reached €19.17 billion, which was a growth of 11.4 percent over 2015. The majority of this revenue is from video gaming machines or VLTs which contributed €19.17 billion, with a 10 percent yearly growth
The Italian government has benefited from the overall growth in the gaming industry. Revenue flowing to the state coffers was up by around 25 percent to reach €10.1 billion. The increase in player winnings was however only 8.2 percent and reached just €76.8 million. Land based casinos saw mixed fortunes as two of them Casino di Campione and Casino di Sanremo witnessed a growth in revenue last month but two other casinos namely Casino di Venezia and Saint Vincent Resort and Casino saw their revenues decline.
