888, William Hill and Tombola all made further inroads into Italy’s regulated online casino and bingo markets during March and April, according to the latest dataset from Italian regulator AAMS.
In a market traditionally dominated by local incumbents - with the notable exception of PokerStars - William Hill last month claimed a top five position in the country’s table games market, where it grew its share of gross gaming revenue (GGR) to 7.72% from 6.1% in February. 888 claimed 6.3% of the market, up from 2.5% in February.
The London-listed operators took market share from all of their closest casino competitors. Leader Lottomatica saw its share fall to 25.7% in April from 29.1% in February; bwin.party to 10.7% from 12.3%; Sisal to 10% from 10.3%; Snai to 8.8% from 9.6% and Winga to 7.4% from 8.1%.
In bingo, leading UK brand Tombola overtook Sisal to break into the top three in the country’s online market, growing its share to 10.8% last month from 7.4% in February. GiocoDigitale.it owner bwin.party retained its lead, but its share contracted to 25% from 26.3% in February, while Lottomatica’s fell to 18.2% from 19.5%.
These strong performances were however achieved against a backdrop of overall decline in Italy’s regulated online gambling market. GGR contracted by 14% during March and April, driven by substantial month-over-month declines in cash poker and fixed-odds sports betting.
Revenue from gambling online on poker, casino, bingo and sports and other products fell 6.5% month-over-month during March to €73.8m and by 8.2% in April to €67.7m, meaning the market was 14.2% smaller by the end of April than it was in February.
While March and April’s returns equated to respective year-on-year improvements of 16.4% and 9.3%, these included revenue contributions from cash poker and casino table games, market segments that didn’t exist in the same period a year earlier.
The bulk of the decline was driven by a 29.7% bi-monthly fall in GGR from fixed-odds sports betting, hindered by a turnover tax and narrower choice of markets than those available on offshore sites. Revenue fell by 10.7% from the €25.6m recorded in February to €22.8m in March and by a huge 21.3% last month to stand at €18m.
Cash poker also contracted by 15.3% during March and April, falling from February’s figure of €21.4m to €19.97m in March and €18.1m in April.
Casino table games represented the one bright spot, growing 5.48% from February’s figure of €10.1bn to €10.67m in April, but the latter figure represented a 1% fall on March’s total, suggesting the market may have stabilised ahead of the introduction of slots later this year.
This casino performance was not however enough to prevent revenue from the dominant poker, casino and skill games segment – representing 65.5% of Italian GGR to the end of April – falling 7.8% from the €46.54m total recorded in February to €43.2m in April.
Bingo, also hindered by a turnover tax, also continued to struggle. While revenue performance remained stable in March, rising 0.6% from February’s total to €4.1m, the market contracted again in April to below €4m for the first time since November 2011, 31.6% down year on year.
Italy online casino and bingo market - April 2012 (% share of GGR)
Casino table games - leading operators*
Lottomatica - 25.7%
bwin.party - 10.73%
Sisal – 10%
Snai - 8.8%
William Hill - 7.72%
Winga - 7.36%
(888 – 6.3%)
Bingo - leading operators*
bwin.party (including GiocoDigitale.it) - 25%
Lottomatica – 18.2%
Tombola – 10.84%
Sisal – 10.54%
Snai – 7.65%
*Calculations by Casino Choice based on AAMS data
