Online Casino Dominates the Italian Market
Intralot Italia may not be looking for global domination, but the company is
certainly taking the lion’s share of the Italian internet betting market. With
online casino gambling on the rise all over Europe and emerging in the Asian
region, popular gambling brands are constantly looking for an exclusive “in.”
Italy only recently opened up the nation’s betting industry – and although
online casinos are still taboo, some of the internet major gambling companies
were able to secure some of the country’s coveted gambling and betting licenses.
Recent news for Intralot involves the acquisition of WHCI, and all of the
gambling and betting licenses that the company held for the Italian market. WHCI
is a joint effort between the William Hill land and online casino gambling
group, and the Codere Italia Srl. The two companies jointly offered land and
internet betting solutions in the Itlian market until last week, when WHCI was
sold for Euro 5.5 million to Itralot Italia. Before the deal with WHCI, Intralot
Italia held 33 percent of the betting and gambling licenses in Italia. With
WHCI’s licenses, the company has much larger holdings and dominance within some
sectors of the Italian betting industry.
As for the specifics of the deal, Intralot will now hold all of WHCI’s Italian
online casino betting licenses, but specifically does not have use of the
company’s brand. All of the existing business will be switched over to the
Intralot Italia brand. Also in the deal, Intralot now holds betting licenses for
national horserace betting – a sector of the industry that the company was
previously not involved in because of the lack of licensing. |