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Newly Liberalized Italian Gambling Market Shows Good Potential

July 24, 2007

The talk in the online betting world these days is buzzing about Italy.  Italy has recently tendered a decision to allow international online and land-based gambling operators the opportunity to enter in their, previously monopolized, Italian gambling market.  

MECN (Media & Entertainment Consulting Network), has recently published a report with their findings from a study performed on the Italian gambling market.  The study included an analysis of the newly available market along with some findings from a survey that MECN conducted with insights from over 70 international gambling service operators. The following is what MECN reported.

Italy is an attractive market for international operators to get involved in, firstly, because it is thought that a second phase of liberalization in this European country is likely to soon occur.  Over half of the surveyed operators believed that this would be the case and that the next time, it will go even further.

These experts also believed that it by the year 2010 a significant share of the gambling market on a whole will be captured by international operators (with an emphasis on the sportsbook services), in other words, the relevance of the foreign operator is growing.  

And finally, the growth potential of internet and retail gambling in Italy speaks for itself.  It is expected that Italy’s gambling market, on a whole, will increase by 64% to €61 billion by 2010.  More specifically, the retail betting sector should reach €14 billion and a total of €3.7 billion in the interactive gambling market is projected.