The panel organized by the Ige – Italian Gaming Expo & Conference team, entitled ‘Stimulate market growth and affiliation strategy in Italy’, took place at iGb London.
London – Effective and necessary insight into the Italian public gaming sector at iGb Live, which this year takes place at Excel London instead of Amsterdam. An overview of the market that has embraced both the promotional side and the changing approach to communication. The event, organized in collaboration with the team at Ige – Italian Gaming Expo & Conference, was titled “Stimulating market growth and the affiliation strategy in Italy”.
After the greetings from Alessio Crisantemi, Chairman & Co-founder of Gn Media / Italian Gaming Expo & Conference, Mauro De Fabritiis, Partner, MDF Partners, presented the scenario where the discussion would then unfold: “The Italian market is one of the most significant in Europe with 21 billion GGR and 5 billion for online gaming. There has been a major shift in concentration from 2019, pre-Covid, to 2024, important for seeing how omni-channel operators have grown rapidly compared to pure online ones. 72% of the market is managed by this type of operator. A growth from 66t% compared to 28% of pure online, which instead decreases from a 34% share.”
Interesting data from Promo Sherlock highlighted the panel’s topic, specifically the tools used by operators and the main key performance indicators. Out of over 30,000 promotions studied by the source in question across 3 different countries, 55% indicated actions on Casino and 35% on Betting. On the casino side, the average real bonus is 70 euros, while it rises to 130 in betting. The sports betting mix always sees football at 54%, while tennis grows to 16%, Formula 1 to 10%, and other sports to 10%. The promotion mix sees cashback dominating in betting at 54% compared to leaderboards at 12%, while in casinos, if cashback remains important at 30%, leaderboards grow to 40%. And De Fabritiis completed: “The incidence of online in Italy is much higher than in the other countries we analyzed such as Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, with 5 billion GGR against 1.5 in Spain and 1.2 in Portugal, with the Latam nations far behind. We are at 24% in 2024 although, in effect, the growth in Portugal and Mexico is very significant but numerically still lower compared to our country.”
To conclude, an update on the reorganization of online gaming: “The new concessions are ready with very strict guidelines compared to the past in terms of compliance at a cost of 7 million with specific limits and significant investments in responsible gaming, 3% per year. The process is moving forward and companies should obtain licenses in September. As many as 46 players participated in the initial application.”
Marco Tiso, Managing Director, Sisal, delved into the “dot it” online market and the strategies of the company he represents: “Let’s start with three thoughts on the market and then I’ll give you the answer. The first is that the incidence of the online market is about 25%, but it is not the same among the different verticals. The incidence of online betting is about 55% while casino is 25% and the online lottery market is 3% of the overall Italian lottery market. This means that there are different opportunities depending on the different verticals, therefore different types of customers. This is the first consideration. The second consideration is that the overall online market is 21 million euros and is quite stable. The incidence is about 2-3%, so in line with the growth of the country’s industry. The online growth incidence is 15-16% this year, with the online market having taken a great advantage by transforming many players from classic to virtual.
The third consideration is that we have very restrictive rules regarding what we can do in terms of communication. As you know, we have a ban on advertising so we cannot communicate our products. What we can do, what the regulator has accepted, is that the operator can promote their infotainmment sites using the name of the market and the operator. This is an opportunity that we have. The second opportunity is the comparison of odds and offers because this is seen as a service for end consumers. Offer comparison is another opportunity we have. The third opportunity, which will probably start with the new license, concerns the opportunity to communicate our market through responsible gaming. In any case, we cannot communicate our product, we cannot advertise ourselves. In this scenario what we have done is try to work with our network to accelerate the digitalization of the country, especially for betting and lottery customers. We try to give a better online and integrated experience with the point of sale. Furthermore, we have activated an advantage agreement with our point of sale to ensure we promote online activation of our customer base. This is the first step we have taken.”
Interesting and decidedly valuable is the observation of Ewa Bakun, Director of Industry Insight and Engagement at Clarion Gaming, who knows the Italian market very well: “I would say that responsibility is a new thing, but there is definitely a changing attitude and a transformative approach towards responsible or safe gambling and towards players’ health. I have dedicated a lot of time and many years in my life to Italy. I can speak Italian, read Italian. Elena Ferrante is my favorite writer, and I recommend her to you. I have also spent some time observing the Italian market, but from a distance, looking at what is happening in Italy from a more global point of view. We have seen Italy as a leader, in some cases, especially when it comes to advertising, but certainly with a precedent that has been followed by other markets when it comes to the approach to advertising.
I can talk a little more about global trends when it comes to adv, and especially in relation to safe gambling and player health. Because, as I said, and this also comes from a type of collaboration in some of the initiatives that follow, which reflect the growing interests of the industry in this area, which we have also added as an organizer, particularly in the form of a consumer protection and sustainable gambling zone, which tells us how we are seeing this area changing and going more in the direction of using or seeing safe gambling as a commercial proposition, rather than just as a cost, something that is more of a problem for operators. And this is something we are starting to see and would like to talk about as an opportunity. So, I think some of the global trends we are seeing, and we are really discussing this with some of the global leaders in online adv, is that this notion of player health is changing in the journey that the player has with the operator. Instead of thinking of it only as a risk, player health becomes part of the message from the beginning of the interaction with the market. And I think this is a very important starting point even if part of the conversations develop and are executed slowly in the markets.
We look at technological development and in particular the implementation and development of artificial intelligence that allows operators to have a more personalized approach. This can happen in the market and in many other areas of gambling, but also in security, to determine the various risks attached to gaming. All of this for me has also changed the paradigm of the industry that can become more proactive in its interaction with the player on many different levels and really change the culture of customer interaction in which the health and care of the same are part of the conversation from the beginning. As I seem to understand there is a kind of revolution in the approach of adv on the regulatory side in Italy in which some of the advertising messages will be allowed and will have to be dedicated to the risks and responsibility of gambling as well as the health of the player.
And I am very curious to see the approach that Italian operators will have, because I believe it is an opportunity to be creative and to start talking not about risks, but about the health of the player from the beginning. I am equally curious to see how the Italian creativity that I have always admired while studying Italian culture and its literature, will be applied in this case in communication.”
Crucial is the experience of Danilo Di Tota, CEO, DT9 Group, best affiliate at Iga 2025 and 2024 and operator who had to reinvent a new way of communicating when the Italian public gaming market saw the total ban on public gaming advertising fall from above. “In 2018, when the advertising ban came for a company like DT9, it was a real shock. We had to find the best solution and on our side we created a legal and technical task force. We discussed a lot with the DT9 government and with the communication authority Agcom to find the best solutions and above all legal and compliance. The first solution was the creation of a new funnel for our affiliate managers, because DT9 has a large network of affiliates, about 1,000 are present on our platform, and we had to create a specific program for them. It was essential to understand how they could communicate within their channels and with end users.
This was a great challenge for us, but we found the best solution for the new communication strategies. As Marco Tiso said, the comparator was very important in addition to the creation of new content within the channels, both on a social and SEO level.
We studied with Sisal and other players how we could also communicate in a digital point without direct advertising problems. This is why we created something together thanks to programmatic advertising that allowed us to communicate legally. How did we do this? Together with Morten we created a comparison funnel and created a good way to communicate directly with our sales channels. This meant a lot to us in terms of business and communication.”
Morten Marcussen, Ceo, PowerMediaGroup, focused on the development possibilities linked to artificial intelligence: “We are in a phase of great transition and I believe that the possibilities offered by AI are fantastic. Once you have set up the programmatic and managed to create attention, you can create more personalized landing pages. AI can always create pre-match articles for each scheduled match and I think this will make a big difference. Once you start producing articles, once you start producing content you can also improve a lot from the Seo side thanks to the experts the company has.”
