Last year, online players in Italy spent a total of €821m on regulated games with cash prizes, an increase of 13 per cent year on year.
Online gaming in Italy accounts for 4.8 per cent of total gaming expenditure (online and offline), up from 4.2 per cent in 2014.
Growth is primarily due to casino games, up 27 per cent in 2015, reaching €328m - 40 per cent of the overall online market.
Sports betting was up 25 per cent to €267m, accounting for 32 per cent of the market, in a year with no major summer sports events.
Conversely the online poker, bingo and virtual betting markets continued to contract, with poker down to 18 per cent and bingo and virtual at seven per cent.
Revenue for the state derived from online gaming grew 23 per cent year on year, to a total of €205m.
The research was undertaken by the Politecnico di Milano's Osservatorio Gioco Online, promoted jointly with the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli and Sogei, the technological partner of the Ministry of Ecomony and Finance.
Marco Planzi, director of the Politecnico di Milano's Osservatorio Gioco Online, said: “This year's research shows how Italy is an attractive market for both Italian and foreign companies.
“Although a significant concentration process, it’s been under way for some years; some new players among the best known abroad started to operate in the Italian regulated market this year too.
“The Italian offer of competitive and regulated games is among the most comprehensive in Europe thanks to the effective activity carried out over the years by the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli.
"From this point of view, Italy represents a benchmark for western countries wishing to adopt national licence systems, thanks to a regulatory system that ‘puts the consumer at the centre’ with its central objectives of forbidding minors from gaming and protecting consumers from fraudulent practices and gaming-realted harm,” said Planzi.
Source: Gioco News
