The operation of these betting outlets will be handled by Merkur Interactive Italia – a company formed at the end of January this year. The Austrian company Cashpoint Sportwetten based in Vienna will contribute the sports betting know-how and will also provide the technical infrastructure. The total investment will exceed Euro 10m. Merkur Interactive Italia will present its market concept in Italy in February and will open its first betting offices in the third quarter of this year. Merkur Interactive focused on obtianing licences in Northern Italy because of the service infrastructure in place in this region. Merkur Interactive won licences in the following regions: Emilia-Romagna, Friuli/Venice, Lazio (Rome city), Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Piedmont, Tuscany, Trento, and Veneto. “We are delighted that we were so successful in the tender in Italy. It proves that our market concept was absolutely right,“ explained Armin Gauselmann, who is the member of the Management Board responsible for the new business segments. “And in addition it is very gratifying that the Italian government was so courageous as to liberalize the sports-betting market, and thus complies with the demands of the European Union to eliminate the corresponding monopolies in the EU member countries. This raises hope for Germany that the governments of the federal states will also give up blocking a responsible liberalization of the betting market and will start to acknowledge the reality of the EU regulations and draw the necessary political consequences,“ continues Paul Gauselmann, Chairman of the Management Board of Gauselmann AG. By tendering the sports-betting licenses the Italian government took the bull by the horns, thus creating a controlled and regulated market and securing the associated revenue from auctioning the licenses and from the taxes to be paid. As a consequence, illegal offers and tax evasion are prevented. "During the preparation Italian politicians surely had a look at the situation in UK, where private sports-betting has a long tradition without any snags. On the contrary, the public revenue even increased continuously“, Gauselmann explained. Gauslemann is keeping a close eye on the Spanish regions where decisions will be taken soon to create a liberalized but controlled market. However, a definite timeline for the implementation is not foreseeable today. Therefore, ‘Merkur Interactive’ will first observe this market carefully, in order to be able to take the necessary business decisions later on.

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