ADM, Italy’s Customs and Monopolies Agency, has extended the deadline to end its tender operations and checks of new online gambling concessions, pushing the closing date from 17 September to 12 November 2025.
The decision was taken to allow ADM agents to manage the ‘procedural complexity’ of the tender process, citing the need for extensive documentation and eligibility checks on applicants seeking to operate under Italy’s new gambling regime.
Providing an update, the ADM confirmed that it has received 52 applications from 46 companies. The licensing stage alone has generated €365m in direct revenue for the ADM, comfortably surpassing the Ministry of Economy’s (MEF) original target of €300–350m.
As part of the relaunch of Italian online gambling, the ADM stated: “Each successful bidder will be required to submit formal documentation within 35 days of the award and will have six months to go live under the terms of Italy’s new, stricter regulatory regime.”
With this, the first stage of a “refreshed market” is now complete. The ADM and MEF project with confidence that Italian online gambling will surpass €5.5bn in annual gross gaming revenue (GGR) by 2026.
As expected, the licensing window was led by the renewal of Lottomatica and Flutter Entertainment, each securing the maximum of five licences.
For the ‘Big Two’, the stakes are high. Flutter International CEO Dan Taylor told SBC of a concentrated multi-million euro “Flutter Edge” investment aimed at enhancing technology and improving cost controls for its localised brands, SNAI and SISAL. The project begins with the relaunch of SISAL’s online gambling offering, spearheaded by Tombola.
Market observers will note a marked shift in the competitive make-up of Italy’s online gambling sector as foreign operators renew their licences under the terms of the revised regime. Among those vying for market share are Austria’s Novomatic, the UK’s Eurobet and Betpoint, and new challengers such as Stake, DAZN Bet, and Marathonbet.
Spain’s Cirsa, via its E-Play24 platform, is joined by France’s Winamax and London-listed evoke, which enters the market under its William Hill and 888 brands. Meanwhile, established Nordic and British firms such as Betsson,bet365, Stanleybet, and MGM-owned LeoVegas are also renewing their positions, signalling a broad and intensifying competitive field.
As competition heats up, so does the likelihood of renewed consolidation. International observers expect aggressive jockeying for market share, and speculation is already mounting over possible mergers and acquisitions once licences are secured. Italy appears poised to become Europe’s next M&A battleground in gambling.
Yet perhaps the most consequential development lies not in licensing, but in sport and politics. Andrea Abodi, the Minister for Sport, is preparing a legislative reform package of a New Sports Law this autumn that could overturn one of the sector’s most contentious constraints: the Dignity Decree.
Introduced in 2018 as part of a populist agenda to curb gambling harm, the decree imposed a blanket ban on gambling advertising and sponsorship — cutting off a vital revenue stream for sports teams and broadcasters while pushing much of the advertising spend into unregulated channels.
Operators have long argued that the ban has done little to reduce gambling harm and has largely benefited offshore and unlicensed operators. Now, with the industry restructured and contributing significantly to tax revenues, momentum is building for a return to a more pragmatic advertising policy.
A vocal critic of the Decree, Abodi has described the restriction as a “blunt populist tool” that has cost Italian sport tens of millions of euros in lost investment — funds that could have been used to upgrade stadiums and support youth programmes.
According to a joint alliance of Serie A clubs, the advertising ban has cost them €180m in revenue since 2019. As one club executive put it: “The ban didn’t clean up gambling. It just turned off the lights.”
Italy’s renewed licensing drive, the steady march of regulatory modernisation, and the potential liberalisation of advertising suggest a market on the verge of transformation. The era of political grandstanding may be coming to an end. Simply put, the government has finally acknowledged that competition in Italian gambling has been reawakened.
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