This story is sponsored by Betfair
The European Commission (EC) has given the green light to Italy’s legislation to regulate betting exchanges.
As reported on Casino Choice, the statutory three-month standstill period set aside for the European Commission (EC) and Member States to review Italy’s amendments to its gambling laws to regulate betting exchanges was extended to 18 May - after Spain issued a detailed opinion against the Ministerial Decree.
But the EC did not recommend any formal changes to the draft based on Spain’s opinion, and the decree has now been returned to the Italian Ministry of Finance for signing and publication on the Official Gazette, at which point it will come into force.
Italian authorities are however still understood to be working on some changes to the decree regarding potential liquidity sharing with other jurisdictions, suggesting the law may not be implemented immediately.
Betfair confirmed its intent in January to apply for an authorisation under its existing Italian online gambling licence to operate its betting exchange, which has been unavailable in Italy since early last year after Betfair Italia was subject to enforcement action from 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 (CEO Fabrizio D’Aloia pictured above) which first revealed its plans to launch an exchange betting product back in 2010, is looking to roll out its new People’s IBEX platform to its client base of 160 licensees already offering products including fixed odds betting, horse-race betting, skill games and poker. The platform has been developed with Betdaq operator Global Betting Exchange (GBE).
