Online lottery betting operator Lottoland has established its footprint in Italy’s regulated online gambling market by acquiring a majority stake in local operator Giochi24.
On Tuesday, Lottoland formally announced its takeover of Giochi24 and the launch of the new Lottoland.it website, which offers not only betting on Italian lotteries like SuperEnalotto, 10e Lotto and Scratch & Win, but also online slots, roulette and bingo products.
Lottoland CEO Nigel Birrell claimed to be “delighted” to have entered Italy’s “vibrant and growing” market via its hookup with Giochi24, and expressed confidence that its product offering would be “attractive to players.”
Giochi24 CEO Paul Di Feo logrolled right back, expressing his pleasure at the new relationship and “the opportunities that will open both companies and Italian players with our two sites, Giochi24.it and Lottoland.it,” which he claimed would provide “the most complete offer possible of games and chance and lotteries authorized in Italy.”
Putting its boots on the ground in The Boot brings Lottoland’s total number of regulated market gaming concessions or licenses to eight, although the longevity of its Australian license appears far from assured at this point.
Lottoland has taken other efforts to diversify its product range, including inking a deal with games developer Pragmatic Play, which launched the first of its over 80 HTML5 games on select Lottoland sites earlier this month.
Lottoland’s VP of gaming Anthony Morris said Pragmatic’s content was key to Lottoland’s goal of “delivering great innovative gaming to our customers” and a further step toward “complementing our core business.”
Lottoland also recently opted to boost its UK profile by signing on as the new sponsor of commercial broadcaster ITV’s rebooted version of the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? game show. Lottoland’s Birrell said the tie-up was a natural, since both his firm and ITV are “in the same business of giving people the chance to win big.”
