According to recent press releases, new Italian online gaming licenses are set to be issued between 18 and 25 September 2017.
The full terms of the process are not officially known yet, however the essential terms are said to be the following:
- A single license price will be €200.000 and will expire on 2022/12/31.
- 120 licenses will be issued on the “first come first served” basis.
- Around a third of them (40 from 120) will be awarded to existing licensees whose licenses expired last year.
- The timeframe for the applications, is estimated to last for two months.
The new licenses will cover all the games that are currently offered under non-exclusive licenses, i.e. sportsbetting, horse betting, card tournament and cash games, casino games, betting exchange, bets on virtual events and bingo. After the “umbrella” licenses are granted, it will be necessary to obtain the technical approval in relation to each game category. This action will not require and added fee.
Finally, it is speculated that the regulatory framework under which the new Italian licensees will operate will not bear any significant changes to the existing one.