Italy’s online gaming market recorded a 7.7 per cent increase in gross gaming revenues in the month of February from turnover of €1.38bn, up from €412.16m a year ago, with online poker and casino games accounting for over 90 per cent of February’s turnover.
February’s online gaming turnover of €1.38bn was down versus the previous four months but up 234 per cent on February 2011, thanks to the contribution of cash poker and casino games which launched last July, adding almost €1.13bn to total turnover in February and generating gross gaming revenues (GGR) of €31.16m.
According to Italy’s online gaming regulator AAMS, the increase in poker and casino games turnover demonstrates the successful channelling of players to the regulated market and away from unlicensed foreign sites.
AAMS added that February’s figures confirm the public’s preference for poker and casino games, which it describes as being better suited for online play. It said the two products accounted for 68.9 per cent of GGR in 2012, rising to 90.4 per cent when sports betting is included, with all other products proving more successful offline.
As in previous months, PokerStars continued to lead the way in poker with 35.8 per cent share of the tournament poker market and 25.82 per cent share of the cash poker market. It was followed in second place by Lottomatica which achieved market share of 11.42 per cent (tournament) and 12.5 per cent (cash poker), with bwin taking third place in tournament poker with a share of 10.10 per cent while Microgame’s People network took third place for cash poker with a market share of 6.81 per cent.
In the casino games segment, Lottomatica was the outright market leader with a share of 29.11 per cent, with second place SISAL capturing 10.32 per cent of the market and SNAI in third place with 9.55 per cent market share.
Excluding cash poker and casino games, Italy’s online gaming turnover in February amounted to approximately €250m versus approximately €412m a year ago, with virtually all products recording a year-on-year fall in turnover, leading to a fall in GGR from €72.98m a year ago to €47.45m on a like-for-like basis.
Online gaming turnover and GGR in February ’12 (€m) (all products)
| Turnover 02/2011 | Turnover 02/2012 | % Change | GGR 02/2011 | GGR 02/2012 | % Change | |||||||
| Tournament Poker | 253.08 | 127.27 | -49.8% | 30.00 | 15.38 | -48.7% | ||||||
| Cash Poker | – | 786.44 | – | – | 21.35 | – | ||||||
| Casino Games | – | 341.07 | – | – | 9.80 | – | ||||||
| Sports Betting | 129.59 | 101.19 | -22.0% | 33.48 | 25.59 | -23.6% | ||||||
| Bingo | 17.49 | 13.96 | -20.0% | 5.36 | 4.07 | -24.0% | ||||||
| Superenalotto | 1.33 | 1.38 | 3.7% | 0.84 | 0.75 | -10.9% | ||||||
| Scratch Cards | 3.99 | 2.24 | -43.9% | 1.35 | 0.62 | -54.1% | ||||||
| Horse Racing | 4.38 | 2.65 | -39.5% | 1.04 | 0.66 | -36.6% | ||||||
| Horse Racing Pools | 2.03 | 0.96 | -52.8% | 0.72 | 0.30 | -58.4% | ||||||
| Sports Betting Pools | 0.27 | 0.13 | -51.9% | 0.18 | 0.08 | -56.0% | ||||||
| Total | 412.16 | 1,377.29 | 234.16% | 72.97 | 78.6 | 7.7% |