Covid-19 hit Italy especially hard, but the country’s iGaming market has managed to grow. In the past year-plus, though the market has been pummeled by a ban on advertising, a tax hike and an economy hammered by Covid-19, the market maintained a measure of growth.
According to iGamingBusiness.com. figures from Ficom Leisure show that revenues from all online verticals rose nearly 95 percent in February compared to the same month in 2020, just before the first lockdown.
Gross gaming revenues (GGR) for the month came to more than €359 million (US$423.5 million, just short of the record set in December). In March, online sports betting was still up more than 160 percent year on year. The resumption of sports betting last June helped steady the market.
“A number of new players have opened online accounts as effect of the lockdowns,” said Christian Tirabassi, senior partner at Ficom Leisure in Rome. “We believe this increase will stay, as a number of players have (become accustomed to) the online/mobile betting and gaming experience.”
Fabio Schiavolin, CEO of iGaming concessionaire Snaitech, cited a revenue spike of 58 percent over 2019. “Snaitech’s 2020 numbers showed a clear evidence of the digitalization process of demand for all products and services, boosted by the retail lockdown with customers experiencing the online offer with increasing confidence,” he said.
“For a number of years now, we have been focusing a great deal on the acquisition of online players through our points of sale, sharing the revenues with (betting) shop managers and building a real omni-channel view on the customers,” he continued. “Even the more reluctant retailers have experienced the importance of exploiting the digitalization, which was for them the only income during these recent months.”
However, the surge in iGaming couldn’t replace revenues lost to the shutdown of betting shops, which remain closed today, said Alexander Martin, CEO of SKS365, the company behind the Planetwin365 brand.
“Online revenues have been stronger in the last year but could not compensate the industry losses by retail closure,” he said. “The land-based network is a crucial asset both in terms of brand awareness and customer protection,” said Martin. “The key to staying ahead of the game is offering an omni-channel experience that allows customers to have both options and therefore to choose which channel best suits them at that particular time.”
The ban on advertising, while posited as a protective measure for consumers, can backfire, said Ekaterina Hartmann, director of legal and regulatory affairs at the European Betting and Gaming Association (EGBA). “It is very harmful, as it does not allow the consumer to be informed of who the regulated operators are.”
Schiavolin agreed. “How can customers distinguish between illegal operators and legal gaming licensees, if the latter are denied the right to promote their brand?”
A 0.5 percent turnover tax on sports betting, imposed in May 2020, “is really killing the business,” said Hartmann. “Being able to offer attractive odds is what keeps players on the regulated market. From our point of view the advertising ban and the new sports tax are very problematic. … A fundamental rethink about the substantial effects of both these measures is urgently necessary.”
