Italy’s online sports betting growth outpacing retail wagers

Italy’s sports betting revenue nearly doubled in the month of August, with online betting growth handily outpacing that of its retail rival.

Official figures published by Italian gaming news agency Agimeg show August’s overall sports revenue coming in just shy of €83m, up 89% from the same month last year. Retail betting revenue improved 74.7% to €43.8m while online betting shot up 108.6% to €39m. For the year to date, retail wagering revenue is up 7.65% while online bets are 34% higher.

Bet365’s Italian site maintained its status as online sports betting’s top dog with nearly 18% of the market, with SKS365’s Planetwin365 brand not far back at 16%. Planetwin365 hopes to close that gap through even greater brand exposure, including this week’s announcement of a two-year official betting partnership with Serie A footballers Napoli.

Italy’s online casino operators also enjoyed a healthy August, reporting revenue of €44.8m, a 30.6% year-on-year improvement. Lottomatica earned top marks with a 9.08% casino market share, narrowly outpacing The Stars Group’s PokerStars.it at 8.93%, although Sisal is nipping at both companies’ heels with 8.81%.