UK bingo operator Tombola is rapidly closing the gap to Italian online bingo leader GiocoDigitale, the latest dataset from regulator AAMS has revealed.
The Sunderland-headquartered business, well-known for sponsoring the shirts of English Premier League club Sunderland AFC from 2010 to 2012, increased its market share to 18.9% in March, up from 14.9% in December. Bwin.party-owned GiocoDigitale’s share remained stable at around 25%.
As with PokerStars however, Tombola’s advance was achieved within a rapidly contracting dot.it market segment. Hindered by a stakes-based tax, gross gaming revenue (GGR) from online bingo finished the quarter 27% down on the prior year at €9.39m.
The online casino segment however received an exponential boost from the launch of online slots in December, with GGR up 85% during the first three months of 2013 to €59.8m.
AAMS said this was: “[D]ue to the reduction of the Italian casino black market whose spending in 2012 was assessed to be around € 280m as opposed to €147m for the licensed online casino market.
“However, if a contraction of the black market has really occurred, this is also due to the tax regime implemented for online slots which allowed operators to offer the same payout as the one available on .COM platforms.”
The slots boost was not however sufficient to return the ailing dot.it market to growth, as total GGR from poker, sports, casino table games, bingo and other products in the ring-fenced market ended Q1 0.2% down at €217.4m, due to declines across all other major products.
AAMs observed that: “Net of the recovery of illegal gambling, the online gaming industry has as early as 2011 been impacted by a contraction of sensitive spending which is more than proportional to the decrease in consumption by Italian families, and fits into the context of a reduction in expenditure on all games with prize money.”
Within casino, Lottomatica, recently rebranded to GTECH, retained the lead it held in table games prior to the slots launch, generating 19.9% of total online casino revenues in March, well ahead of fellow local incumbents SNAI and Sisal (see below for more detail).
UK bookie William Hill also retained its top-five position in the casino segment, with a market share of 7%, closely followed by 888 with 6.6%. Paddy Power also continued to slowly establish itself, upping its market share to 1.5% from 0.8% in December. Recent entrant 32Red claimed a market share of 0.5%.
Italy online casino, sports betting and bingo market – March 2013 (% share of GGR)
Casino games – leading operators**
Lottomatica (including Totosi.it) – 19.9% (20.3%)
SNAI – 10.63% (11%)
Sisal - 9.2%
bwin.party (including bwin, Gioco Digitale and PartyCasino.it) – 7.7% (9.4%)
William Hill – 7% (7.1%)
(888 – 6.6%)
Fixed-odds sports betting – leading operators**
Lottomatica (including Totosi.it) – 19.8% (21.3%)
SNAI – 12% (11.3%)
bwin.party (bwin.it and GiocoDigitale.it) – 11.7% (10.3%)
Sisal – 9.6% (9.5%)
Eurobet – 8.3% (7.4%)
(Paddy Power – 6%)
Bingo – leading operators**
bwin.party (including GiocoDigitale.it) – 25.2% (24.8%)
Tombola – 18.9% (14.9%)
Lottomatica (including Totosi.it) – 16.9% (17.2%)
Sisal – 9% (9.7%)
SNAI – 6.3% (7.4%)
*December 2012 figures in brackets
**Calculations by Casino Choice based on AAMS data
Article written by Peter Holmes
