The Italian online gaming market achieved € 1.38 bn GGR in 2017 with a growth of 34%, if compared to 2016 data according to the data of the University of Milan.

The data of the Italian online gaming market

As it happens each year, the University of Milan has published its data on the Italian online gaming market for 2017 that show a considerable growth, if compared to 2016 data. In particolar:

• the GGR of the whole market reached € 1.38 bn with a 34% increase over 2017 data, which means that the online gaming market now reppresents 7.2% (against 5.4% of 2016) of the whole Italian gaming market that shows a migration of players from the land based gaming market towards the online gaming market;
• the most popular games are casino games which reached € 569 million of GGR that represents 41% of the whole Italian online gaming market, followed by sportsbetting with € 556 million of GGR which shows a 59% increase on 2016 data and by online tournament and cash poker games with € 114 million that now represent 10% of the whole market;
• the remaining 9% of the Italian online gaming market is made of € 109 million of GGR divided among a number of games such as horse betting, bingo, totalizator sports and numbering games, betting exchange, lotto and scratch cards with a 12% increase over 2016 data;
• the mobile betting and gaming market reached € 350 million with a 50% increase which was driven mainly by sportsbetting (+65%) and casino games (+46%);
• the number of monthly average active online gaming players reached 959 thousand player with a 25% increase over 2016 data and out of 2.2 million online gaming players in 2017 that still represent only 7% of the Italian Internet of users older than 18 years of age.

What are the reasons of such growth?

According to the University of Milan, the reason of such growth was due mainly by the entrance in the Italian licensed online gaming market of a number of operators which were previously offering games to Italian players without a local license.

Indeed, a number of international operators obtained an Italian online gaming market in the last years, also because of the possibility given to the so called CTDs to cure their position through the payment of back-dated taxes.

It will be interesting to see whether further growth will be driven by the entrance in the market of further operators following the recent tender for Italian online gaming licenses.

http://www.gamingtechlaw.com/2018/04/italian-online-gaming-market-1-38-bn-ggr.html