Italian online casino sector posts 30% growth
February revenues for casino grew to 24.3m as poker continued to decline
Growth in Italy’s online casino sector showed no signs of abating in February with the vertical posting a 30% year-on-year increase, in stark contrast to the country’s struggling poker market which saw revenues fall 19%.
According to figures seen by eGaming Review, casino’s gross gaming revenues (GGR) for the month amounted to 24.3m, up on the 18.7m posted in February 2014, albeit down slightly on the 25.9m recorded in January this year.
Casino revenues rose by 9% in 2014 to 258m and the market is expected to grow further this year due to recent market entrants bet365 and PokerStars and the continued efforts of the regulator to halt the supply of games to unlicensed operators.
Italian operators received a boost in February when the regulator introduced a quicker and simper registration process which DLA Piper head of the Italian gambling practice Giulio Coraggio said was aimed at preventing players from “giving up” on completing what was seen as a “burdensome” process.
Consumers can now complete a ‘light’ registration before play where only essential identification details are required while further details are to be collected within the following 30-day period.
However, while these measures have seen casino prosper, poker has continued to struggle and cash stakes fell again year-on-year from 390m to 290m in February, while GGR was down from 10.1m to 8.2m.
Tournament stakes provided some semblance of good news as the respective year-on-year totals remained relatively flat at 62m.