To the surprise of industry observers, Italy’s government has sanctioned a decree to reorganise the laws of the gambling sector.
Those are the questions that will be touched on the latest episode of iGaming Daily, sponsored by SBC Summit Barcelona, with Martyn Elliott being joined by Edward Menmuir and Ted Orme-Claye.
The group kicked off the podcast with discussions surrounding the latest updates in the Italian Market.
Menmuir described the news surrounding Italian gambling reforms as ‘Surprising’. Menmuir stated: “If you look at Italy it’s been a market that’s been in rupture for 10 years, but what it underlines is that there is a political will to change gambling’s laws and fix these issues. It looks like the government is going to push on it, and hopefully you will get some regulatory settlement in 2023. So it’s positive overall.”
Following on from that the group addressed why they think Italy has decided to act now after a long period of uncertainty.
Menmuir stated: “It’s very hard to get any federal laws passed in Italy. You’re talking about a country that’s had six government changes in a decade. It has to progress the laws for an industry. They’re outdated, they need a lot of domestic businesses, they need transparency on licensing, and where they stand there’s been a decade-long conflict. There have been so many points of conflict in the Italian market that it had to come to this point. The government has to update laws for the gambling industry, it’s now or never really for Italy.”
Orme-Claye added: ”There’s just some recognition of how much of a significant sector Italian gambling is to the wider economy. In order to maintain the stability of that sector it needs to have updated laws, particularly around licensing.”
Continuing the discussion Menmuir highlighted some of the key measures the Italian government is taking to deliver changes within the country’s gambling sector.
“The Deputy Minister for the Economy Maurizio Leo’s primary focus as expected is to rebalance the gambling laws. We’re going to see player protection at the front of this. We will also see the sorting out of the licensing concessions for Italian retail gambling.” Stated Menmuir.
Addressing whether The Italian Government may retract its decision to ban gambling advertising on football shirts Orme-Claye stated: ”I know that Italian football clubs have been calling for a review of the advertising ban for some time because in other countries the revenue from these sponsorship deals, and advertising deals has been quite significant. However, I don’t really see the advertising ban being factored into the political discussion. I think for the moment it’s going to focus primarily on the licensing and financial side of things.”
Menmuir added: “I think the special delegation will touch on it, and what is recognized is that it hasn’t worked. It has really impacted the finances of Serie A and sports clubs in general, but also impacted Italian media. I won’t be surprised if the special delegation asks for a review on it, but whether the government proceeds is another matter.”
The group concluded the podcast with discussions surrounding the country’s recent M&A activity and the influence this may have on the markets, ownership, and overall the big players in the Italian market.
To read more on the topic discussed today, click on the following links, and to listen to the podcast, check out the YouTube video, or the podcast player for the audio only version:
https://sbcnews.co.uk/featurednews/2023/07/18/italy-overhaul-2023-laws/
https://sbcnews.co.uk/europe/2023/06/19/italy-hot-summer-reforms/
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