SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Italy’s customs and monopolies agency – ADM, the governing body overseeing Italian gambling laws is reported to have finalised its long-awaited online gambling licensing procedure.
Having revised Italy’s online gambling laws to include tougher AML protections and customer requirements on registration, the ADM has settled on sanctioning 67 new online gambling concessions.
As communicated last February, the ADM has renewed online licenses for Italian legacy operators, Snaitech, Lottomatica, Sisal, Eurobet, Goldbet, Stanleybet and Microgame.
The legacy operators are joined by established foreign incumbents William Hill, bet365, bwin, Pokerstars and Betfair all securing new ADM approvals.
Settling on its final 67 concessions, the ADM welcomes new faces to Italian sports betting, with Smarkets, Pinnacle and Energybet securing online licenses.
Industry analysts will be monitoring the movements of fresh Italian incumbents closely, assessing whether new players can secure growth in a marketplace adjusting to severe advertising restrictions and new tax demands.
Closing 2018, the Lega-5Star coalition government passed its ‘Budget Law’ mandate sanctioning tax increases across all gambling verticals, as online sports betting taxes increased to 24% GGR duty.
Following its final review process, the ADM has chosen to exclude seven operators from securing concessions – Pi Piper Ltd, Betclic Ltd, Goal & Gaming srl, Constitution of B&B online, Rabbit Entertainment, Play Live Ltd and Rating Consulting.
The management of Goal&Gaming has moved to appeal its exclusion with the Administrative Court of Rome, with other rejected operators expected to appeal the ADM’s decision.
The ADM closes its online licensing procedure having secured a reported €13.4 million in concessions for the Italian tax authorities, granted at €200,000 per registered applicant.
