Italy’s Online Casino Market Lost Ground in February

Italy s online casino market continues to show strength this year, even as it slips. February s gross gaming revenue dropped from its January level, but was still better than where it was a year ago.

In January, overall in Italy recorded gross gaming revenue (GGR) of €324.9 million (US$358.8 million). In eight months, this was its highest level and joined several record-breaking months seen in the past year.

Ficom Leisure has put together the figures for February, reporting a 22.3% drop from the previous month. The final tally was €147.7 million (US$163.03 million). While a decline from January, it was still better than February of last year.

The online gaming race tightened significantly in February. Flutter Entertainment-owned PokerStars was the definitive leader in January but only controlled 8.67% of the market last month. However, this was just slightly ahead of , which grabbed 8.57%. Coming in third was Playtech s Snai at 8.54%.

Rounding out the top five were Lottomatica, with its 7.41%, and 888 at 6.84%. Others that made the top-10 list include Eurobet (6.34%), Goldbet (5.09%), and Betsson s StarCasino (4.37%).

Poker interest continued to wane. In January, it had already dropped, and tournament revenue fell 28.1% in February. It closed at €8.2 million (US$9.05 million) but followed a tough month. January s total was the highest recorded in the past 12 months. However, this was also 12.8% lower than a year earlier.

Poker cash game action fell even more. Overall, the segment recorded €5.6 million (US$6.18 million), a month-over-month plummet of 25.3%. That was also a 16.5% drop from February of last year.

PokerStars ruled both the tournament and cash game segments. It only controlled a little less than half of the tournament segment, but this was 400% greater than Sisal, which ended in second place. In addition, PokerStars had control of 42.51% of the cash games, considerably outpacing Goldbet and its second-place finish of 7.4%.

Italians couldn t find many interesting sports betting options either in February. Land-based and online sportsbooks recorded total revenue of €204.7 million (US$226.03 million), 3% less than in January.

On the bright side, the figure was an improvement over a year ago. In February of last year, the combined sports betting revenue was around €170 million (US$187.71 million).

Snai has command of the online sports betting segment and once had control over the entire segment. Its market share for online sports betting was 13.8%, barely beating Sisal at 13.4%. Based on total revenue, though, Sisal was in second, with 15.6%, edged out by Goldbet s 15.7%.

Overall, online sports betting was less popular than its land-based counterpart. The segment was responsible for generating €122.1 million (US$134.8 million), a 5.2% drop from January. It is also the lowest figure for the segment since October of last year.

Online operator Microgaming hopes it can move up on the list. It signed a distribution agreement with Oryx Gaming last week. It will add content from the Bragg Gaming Group-owned company s Atomic Slot Lab studio, which the company promises delivers Las Vegas energy to the online segment.