Italy Slashes Betting Sites from 407 to 52 in Historic Crackdown

The Italian gambling authority wants to promote transparency and crack down on affiliate run domains, or betting site “skins”. The fact that these will purge over 350 sites, reducing the number of legal betting sites from 407 down to just 52, is a necessary step in protecting the industry. And Italy’s gambling industry is the fourth largest gaming market in Europe, worth over €21 billion per year. Make no mistake, this is Italy’s largest numerical reduction; approximately 87% of the sites are going to go offline.

It’s an even bigger scale than Germany’s 2021 Interstate Gambling Treaty, which took out over 70% of the country’s gambling sites, reducing the number of legal (and gray market) entities from 120 to 36. The regulator is confident this move will establish a more level playing field, give greater transparency to players and fight the unregulated black market. The new laws are set to go into effect on November 13.

Italy’s Goal in Shaking Up the Market

Italy aims to exert more professional and direct control over online casinos and sports betting sites, which entails stricter regulations for licensees. The country’s gaming regulator, ADM (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli), cited the network of affiliate-run “skins”, blurring the player protection oversight. To clarify, Italy is not kicking out any operators; they are simply removing all sister sites, affiliated online casinos, and other skins. The ADM wants to have 1 gaming site for every company with an iGaming license. In stats, we are talking about:

• 407 active gambling sites right now
  • 315 run by domestic operators
  • 92 run by international operators
• 52 licenses in total – held by 46 licenses (some multiple license holders)

The goal would be to whittle down the number of skin sites, which could mean more relevance for players. You aren’t going to get dozens of similar gambling sites with the same games in their portfolio, similar bonuses, but just under different names with different themes. These will all be stripped back, and in their place, you will get operators using all their gaming resources in one place. That is, more quality gaming experiences and attention to detail in the products.

Italian Licensees and Current Model

Looking at the ADM’s list of authorized remote operators, and we found a few examples of operators with numerous affiliated brands. Not pointing fingers here, but here are some of the licensees that run numerous online gambling platforms:

• Vincitu’ s.r.l. (15200/15201): 120+ sites
• E-play 24 ITA Ltd (15232): 50+ sites
• Hbg On Line Gaming s.r.l. (15143/15221 – 2 licenses): 10+ sites
• Microgame Spa (15112/15219 – 2 licenses): 10+ sites
• Admiral Sport s.r.l. (15096): 10 sites

There are many licensees with multiple sites but fall under 10. But remember this, skins or not, these are all licensed and official platforms in Italy. They are not scams – they are run by licensed companies that comply with the Italian gambling laws. The concern is that the legal loophole opens the possibility for a type of master-license scenario like Curacao.

Who are these companies? E-Play is run by the famous Spanish casino brand, Cirsa. And Vincitu’ is an established Italian company

Well Known Players in Italy

Curacao has now moved on, with its NOK gambling reforms, and Italy is doing the same. You may not recognize some of the companies listed above. So we will also list a few more recognizable companies that you may have heard of. Some have set up shop in Italy and created local companies, while others haven’t and operate out of Malta or other EU-based gambling jurisdictions.

• William Hill Malta Plc (15038): 2 sites
• 888 Italia Ltd (15014) – 8 sites
• Unibet Italia Ltd (15228) – 1 site
• Tsg Italy s.r.l. (15023) – 5 sites (including Skybet, Pokerstars)
• Leo Vegas Gaming Plc (15011) – 1 site
• Hillside New Media Malta Plc (15253) – 1 site (bet365)
• Betway Limited (15216) – 2 sites
• Betfair Italia s.r.l. (15211) – 2 sites

Also, on the list of authorized remote operators, we found Italian landbased casinos such as Casino Di San Remo Spa and Casino Di Venezia Gioco Spa.

Bigger brands will have to kill off their affiliated sites, and the operators that have launched a staggering amount of sites (Vincitu and E-Play have contributed over 170 skins combined), will now have to seriously rethink their business models.

Relief For Smaller Operators…

One of the hopes with these laws is that the playing field will be levelled for smaller operators. The operators with more resources cannot saturate the market to the extent they have. And so smaller operators, with a fraction of the casino marketing budget, won’t be drowned out in a sea of clone sites.

Mega gambling conglomerates own some of the authorized gambling licensee companies. The best example is Flutter Entertainment – owner of FanDuel, Betfair, Paddy Power, and PokerStars – has several brands in Italy, including the licensed companies Snailtech Spa and Sisal Italia. It would have to cut down on its additional sites, which will be good for smaller companies.

…Or Not?

But the new licensing fee structure will not please the smaller companies. The ADM recently introduced the licensing phase of the project, which has operators paying €7 million for licenses. In total, the state made €356 million from this new framework, exceeding the Ministry of Economy’s target of €300 – €350. Following this, it will make stricter regulations on marketing, including a ban on sports sponsorships (like the issue in the UK regarding gambling sponsors on Premier League teams). Smaller operators are getting a mixed bag here.

Fewer competition, but higher licensing fees and limited advertising. Some critics seem to think it is more advantageous for larger companies, with established brands to lean back on. Others think the public will respond with more interest in exploring new sites – after all – there won’t be any more clones to sieve through.

Additional ADM Policies

The reforms are not limited to the license reduction. The ADM is rolling out a series of cybersecurity and anti-fraud measures designed to tackle identity theft, money laundering, and unregistered black market activity. These include stricter player verification rules, tighter limits on deposits and losses, and advanced domain-blocking tools targeting illegal operators. The regulator will also maintain a national database of licensed domains. This ensures players can easily verify whether a betting site is legitimate before signing up.

Italy’s regulator wants to throw more light on responsible gambling. Operators will be mandated to display banners to customers showing them where they can find the responsible gambling measures and tools. But the legislation does not stop there. Players will have 6 months to establish spending and betting limits on their accounts. Anyone who doesn’t will lose their right to bet for a period of 3 years.

• Spending Limit: How much money you can deposit into your account in a given timeframe
• Betting Limits: How much of your bankroll you can stake in bets in a given timeframe

It is strict, but nowhere near as strict as Spain’s recent RG reforms and AI deposit monitoring. Italy is definitely stepping up its game; it wants to combat the unregulated market.

Italy’s Black Market and Going Forward

In 2023, the EGBA (European Gaming and Betting Association), published an article on the size of the online gambling black market in Italy. It used a figure from the La Gazzetta dello Sport, which suggested Italians had spent €25 billion at unlicensed gambling sites – €18.5 billion of which was spent on unregulated sports betting. And Italy’s favorite sport to bet on is soccer (football) by an extraordinary length.

The ADM has since blocked over 11,000 gambling sites in the country, but it is losing an estimated €1.25 billion of revenue each year to the black market.

• Estimates suggest €25 billion is wagered (not won or lost, just wagered) at unlicensed sites
• Of this, based on an average 95% RTP, the black market is soaking up €1.25 billion in revenue

The hope is that the ADM will win back player trust, pushing them back to licensed sites and slowly filtering out the unregulated sites. The EGBA applauded Italy’s bold move, stating it was necessary to cleaning the digital gambling space.

Critics are skeptical that this enforcement, alongside the responsible gambling laws, won’t prompt players to look at offshore sites. It happened in the Netherlands, and this will be Italy’s next greatest challenge.