SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Recent history has not been kind to Italian football, which this summer was rocked by football corruption charges. Faced with growing scepticism towards betting operators, BOF Italian market panel asses Italy’s current market conditions and how the industry can fight its current predicaments.
Session Panel
SBC Notes
Quirino Mancini – Italian operators are well aware of public scepticism towards betting products, however, football as a marketing/advertising vertical still represents a huge opportunity. Mancini states that betting advertising within Italian football is still very much in its infancy in terms of promotion and partnership inventory.
Fabio Schiavolin – Italian football is held back by a poor infrastructure which impacts clubs commercial assets. Only two Italian clubs own their stadiums (Juventus and Udinese), and Serie A has seen a decline with regards to crowd attendance displaying a 55% match attendance average.
From a betting governance perspective, Italian football needs an overhaul in its infrastructure in order to be an attractive proposition. Schiavolin stated that he does not know how this can be undertaken, perhaps Italy lands a major football tournament to aid its development.
Joe Tacopina – At present ownership is divided on the subject of betting, due to its negative history within Italy’s leagues. However Tacopina urges for clubs, regulators and betting firms to begin to have a more grounded debate on the subject matter in order to ensure a level of sustained progress.
Tacopina states that opposition to betting should be understood as by all stakeholders, however at present the debate against betting and its marketing/promotion is simply baseless and breeds a level of hypocrisy which ensures limited progress on the matter.
