The Italian online gambling industry has made such waves during May of 2016, posting strong financial results.The industry benefitted from a revenue increase of 20.3% during May, up to €34.7 million, adding to an overall trend that has seems revenue in the first five months of 2016 rise to €175 million, up 35.6% in comparison to 2015.
Operators
There are five leading operators in the country, accounting for over 40% of the industry between them.These are PokerStars with 5.8% of the market share, Eurobet with 6.1%, William Hill on 6.9%, Sisal is a way ahead of these three on 9.2%, and the clear leader in terms of market share is Lottomatica, sitting on a 12.2% share.
Poker growth
PokerStars may currently have the smallest market share of the five leading operators, but it holds a 72.8% revenue share in the poker industry as of May 2016.This could prove to be very useful for PokerStars as online poker is looking promising in terms of results.Online poker revenue rose 7.7% to €4.4 million in May 2016, which was, however, offset a little by an increase of 18.6% in tournament earnings, which were up to €38.4 million for the same period.
PokerStars
PokerStars saw a smaller share for cash game earnings, at 47.6% for the market, but the increase in the popularity of online poker in Italy suggests that PokerStars may see their overall share in the market increase over time.Online poker in Italy is a closed market, which allows a company such as PokerStars to maintain such a dominant position. The restriction, which means that Italian sites are not permitted to share their player pools with other countries, is similar to the regulations that are in place in other parts of Europe, including France and Spain.