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The expected delays of the Italian betting shop tender might not occur based on the latest news as to the upcoming agreement with Municipalities.
The Italian betting shop tender
I have already discussed in previous blog posts about the procedure for the award of
- 10,000 betting shop licenses with an initial bidding price of € 32,000 and
- 5,000 betting corner licenses with an initial bidding price of € 18,000
that are expected to be awarded in Italy because of the expiry of all the current licenses on 30 June 2016. This is an interesting opportunity also for new entrants in the market since the tendering process will completely reset the current betting shop market as all the current operators shall bid for new licenses.
Unfortunately such tender has now been delayed because of the lack of agreement between the Government and the Municipalities as to the time of operation and the location of betting shops/corners. Indeed, given the current uncertainty on such matters, the gaming regulator considered the solution to this issue as a dependency for the launch of the new tender.
The delay might not be too long
Based on the latest information available on the press, the delay might be shorter than initially expected. The Government expects to reach an agreement with the Municipalities in the upcoming meeting of the 21st of July 2016. If the agreement will be reached, the tender might be launched later this year with new licenses that might be awarded by the end of the year.
This is good news for the new entrants in the market and those that want to increase their market share, while it might be bad news for some of the current operators that will not have to bid to keep their licenses.
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