William Hill Launches Italian Focused Website

Friday July 5,2013 : ITALIAN ONLINE POKER FOR WILLIAM HILL PLC
 
Launch of new Italian-focused website powered by Playtech imminent
 
The major UK online and land gambling group William Hill plc is about to launch an Italian market-focused online poker site powered by Playtech and part of the Italian iPoker dedicated network, which reportedly has secured an almost 16 percent market-share in the region.
 
The betting giant has been active in the Italian market since mid-2011, with an online casino offering that has secured a 7 percent market share in that sector, and a sports betting product which has 3.65 percent of Italian sports betting action.
 
Pokerstars is dominant in the Italian market as usual, and regulator AAMS figures suggest that the online poker industry leader has captured 44 percent of the Italian internet poker sector.  The Italian iPoker network's 15.8 percent share of that market includes contributions from tier one companies like Titan, Sisal, Eurobet and SNAI.
 
However, all is not wine and roses in Italian online poker; the latest stats from AAMS, covering the first three months of 2013, show a 34.6 percent year-on-year decline in cash game revenues.
 
More generally, the numbers indicate that gross gaming revenue from online gambling in Italy in Q1 2013 was down Euro 217.4 million, or 0.2 percent, compared to Q1-2012…and that was despite the introduction of regulated slot action late last year.