Italy egaming turnover could double by 2012

Margins from the March launch of poker cash games, which consistently account for around 75% of global margin/turnover, are projected to rise to 400 million euros in 2011 from 340 million euros in 2010, said the data provider.

According to Stefano Acciavatti of TrustPartners, the continued growth of the market, combined with the substantial growth in margins and of opportunities for cross sell between the full range of product verticals “will support the next year’s growth rate for the Italian egaming market. In 2011, overall turnover might double in value and will further increase in 2012.”

As reported by eGR, the continued growth of tournament poker in Italy last year helped turnover from the Italian online gaming market grow by 28% to 4.8 billion euros, from 3.4 billion euros, with 96% of this coming from skill games (including tournament poker), sports betting and bingo.

TrustPartners however also revealed that while game accounts and revenues for poker continued to grow in 2010, the former increasing 100% to 670,000 from 2009, and revenues reaching an average of 250- 270 million euros a month, there were also signs of stabilisation in the poker market.

Acciavatti said: “Even if game accounts and revenues for poker increased in 2010 with respect to 2009, during the last four to five months of last year there were clear signs of stabilisation. Game sessions, tournaments and amount of money spent per each game were down in number and volume compared to the comparable period in 2009.”