First results of the new regulatory scheme for cash poker and casino games in Italy analysed at EiG
Italy recently updated its regulation of online gaming to allow operators to offer cash casino games and online poker in addition to tournament poker and sports betting, opening up a new world of opportunities for local brands, global players and powerful new entrants from non-gambling space to operate in this lucrative market.
This expansion of Italy’s online gaming market will be one of the key topics discussed at Totally Gaming EiG, taking place on 19-22 September in Milan, Italy’s capital of business. EiG will feature a number of high-level exhibitors and speakers from local brands such as Lottomatica, Poste Mobile and SNAI and recent entrants to the market including Dragonfish/888, Net Entertainment, Playtech and William Hill.
In addition to the exhibitors and speakers, EiG has assembled a programme that will ensure companies are best positioned to profit from and maintain a leading share of Italy’s now rapidly growing iGaming market.
It features a workshop organised in partnership with Italian information and consulting agency Business International that will explore lessons learnt from operating in this highly lucrative regulated market and reveal how to get the most out of it as it develops further.
As part of the workshop, a local brands round table discussion will enable EiG attendees to hear how representatives of key Italian operators are positioning themselves to capitalise on the new regulation, where they see further growth coming from, what customer segments they are aiming to tap into and what opportunities to form partnerships with them exist.
This will be followed by a panel discussion that will seek to compare the advantages of a .country model against a .com model.
With experts including Skysport 365’s Franceso Baranca, PokerStars’ Barbera Beltrami and William Hill’s Wilhelm Huber, the panel will look at the rationale behind .country licensing and how it impacts the country’s operational model, legal enforcement in .country jurisdictions and actions taken against non-licence holders, and lessons learnt from Italy and other newly regulated jurisdictions.
EiG’s regulatory and tax track also features several panels that will help translate the lessons from Italy so they can be adapted in other jurisdictions and illustrate how companies can best prepare themselves to take full advantage of regulatory developments in other key markets, such as Spain, Germany, Hungary, Greece and Belgium.
Regulators from ARJEL, the Belgian Gaming Commission, Spain’s Ministry of Finance and Germany’s Brandenburg Federal State Ministry of Interior will look at the examples of France, Denmark and Italy to compare regulatory and tax models and share best practice in regulating iGaming in global markets.
bwin’s Paolo Di Feo will look at the Gioco Digitale case study to reveal how to build and scale up a strong brand with fully localised products and services for an effective .country business, while PosteMobile’s Francesco Mastantuoni will explain how to leverage an established brand and product offer to obtain market share while entering an increasingly competitive market.
Ewa Bakun, of EiG organisers Clarion Gaming, commented: “The industry has been waiting and gearing up for these new regulatory changes in Italy; all Italian and global players are now focused on making the new games work.
EiG will be the first occasion for the iGaming industry’s key decision makers to gather since this new development, and it will provide the perfect place for them to get the very best market information when taking advantage of the opportunity that Italy now presents.”
The 10th European iGaming Congress & Expo will take place on 19-22 September 2011 in Milan, Italy. More details and registration are available on www.eigexpo.com.
