The UEFA Euro 2024 championships concluded on a sombre note that football will not be coming home for UK audiences and as a result, the show’s Euro roundup will have no mention of football.

Instead, Martyn Elliott is joined by SBC’s Content Director, Ted Menmuir, to discuss the latest updates from Italy where the ADM plans to launch a new regime and Croatia where a new government has pledged to fast-track a gambling overhaul.

Last week, the ADM launched its new framework for online gambling concessions and, following its final determination, it will be merged as a regulatory measure of the ‘Reorganisation of Gambling’ decree to overhaul Italy’s online and land-based gambling laws. 

Headlines from the framework include a 35x increase on existing concessions to €7m lasting nine years and an elimination of the use of skin gambling websites.

On the €7m fee, Ted said: “The licence fee was endorsed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy and they believe that it is now reflective of a market which is starting to see a level of saturation.

“The other thing is that it’s also going to reflect the transition of what’s happening to Italian gambling, which is going from retail to online. The growth segment of Italian gambling is that online transition and that is where the operators are competing and that’s the vertical that should face higher taxes or high licensing fees.”

He adds that the Italian gambling black market is estimated to be worth €1bn which means that there is a large market for Italy’s regulated operators to compete for.

After a short break, the show’s attention then turns to Croatia. 

Following April’s general election, the country’s new government announced plans to fast-track an overhaul of its gambling laws due to concerns over the “overall exposure of Croatian citizens to gambling harm”.

On the reform, Ted said: “Croatian gambling is in a very kind of tricky place at the moment. It’s a growing industry. It does contribute to the economy and overall people do look at it as a net positive. However, you’re talking about a gambling regime that hasn’t been revised since its implementation.

“The other factor here is that, like in other Eastern European jurisdictions, there is such a difference between rural communities and urban communities in terms of spend and GDP. Talking to one of our Croatian partners, they said that one of the concerns is that in certain towns there are more betting shops than there are bakeries. It’s definitely an agenda that needs reviewing.”

The draft decree proposes to strengthen the key disciplines of gambling advertising, protecting minors, promoting responsible gambling, self-exclusion and tougher enforcement and compliance. 

Ted explains that there is a need to focus on player protection given that Croatia has a high index of gambling addiction, with over 40,000 citizens noting that they are at risk of or received treatment for problem gambling. This is one of the highest indexes in Europe given the country’s population of just under four million.