Betfair and Microgame have had to push back their plans to launch exchange betting in Italy by a further month after Spain issued an opinion against the Italian government’s enabling legislation to the European Commission.
The statutory three-month standstill period set aside for the European Commission (EC) to review Italy’s amendments to its gambling laws to regulate betting exchanges and for other Member States to comment on these proposals had been due to expire on 17 April, after Italian authorities notified the relevant Ministerial Decree to the Commission on 16 January.
However, the European Commission website now shows that Spain has issued a detailed opinion on the Italian notification, which has resulted in the EC extending the standstill period by an additional month. This means that 18 May will now be the earliest date the Ministerial Decree can be returned to the Italian Ministry of Finance for signing, at which point it will come into force.
The delay means that Betfair and Microgame, the two companies set to go head-to-head in Italy’s new exchange betting market, will have to put their plans on ice for at least another month.
Betfair confirmed its intention in January to apply for an authorisation under its existing Italian online gambling licence to operate the company’s betting exchange product in the country. The company’s betting exchange has not been available in Italy since early last year after Betfair Italia was subject to enforcement action from Italian regulator AAMS for offering games to Italian punters off Betfair.com, in breach of its licence for Betfair.it.
Leading Italian software provider and network Microgame also revealed last month that it had been building an exchange betting platform in partnership with Betdaq operator Global Betting Exchange(GBE) for the past three years, with a view to rolling this out across its People’s Network of 160 licensees already offering products including fixed odds betting, horse-race betting, skill games and poker.
Microgame CEO Fabrizio D’Aloia (pictured above) however stressed that traditional bookmakers in the country should not see the new People’s IBEX as a competitor “but as as a great alternative for them to diversify their business.”
While the fixed-odds sports betting market in Italy suffered badly last year from the introduction of other products such as poker and casino table games, a quadrupling of gross gaming revenues from the segment in February helped the regulated online gambling market in Italy to month-over-month growth of 21%, according to data from Italian regulator AAMS. This revenue total was still however 24% below that recorded in February 2011, prior to its cannibalisation by other products. D’Aloia said that the forthcoming change in legislation would allow Microgame and GBE “to fulfil the joint ambition of revolutionising the Italian regulated online betting market.”
