Online gambling operator Bet365 has tightened its already firm grip on Italy’s regulated sports betting market, according to new estimates released by the AGIMEG news agency.
Italy’s overall sports betting market took in wagers of €562.4m in the month of May, 15% higher than the same month last year. For the year to date, sports betting turnover totaled €2.9b, up from €2.5b in the first five months of 2015, with online wagering accounting for €1.6b of 2016’s total.
Total online wagers in May were up nearly one-third to €317.4m. Bet365 claimed just under €120m of this pie for a 37.1% share, a 1.4-point improvement over its Q1 share. Bet365’s total was also sufficient to make it the top overall betting operator, easily eclipsing SNAI-Cogetech’s combined online/retail total of €80m.
Gala Coral Group’s Eurobet brand placed a distant second on the online chart with €32m, well ahead of third-ranked SISAL’s €23.9m, while SNAI’s €21.5m edged out William Hill by a mere €200k.
SNAI-Cogetech was the unquestioned retail betting leader with €58.4m, while Lottomatica ranked second with €41.4m with Eurobet not far behind at €39.5m.
Virtual betting products had a strong May with wagers totaling €95.3m, the second highest total this year behind January. Betting exchanges were only approved in Italy in 2014, but this year has shown strong growth, albeit from a relatively small base. Exchange wagers totaled only around €400k in May but the year-to-date number is up more than one-third over the first five months of 2015.
