Online and retail betting soaring in January: the sensational spending data

The sports betting sector is experiencing a period of excellent health within the Italian legal public gaming industry. January’s data is truly excellent, both for online and retail betting. The industry has now consolidated into a substantial duopoly, as demonstrated by the data collected and published by Agimeg.

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Online betting: in January spending takes flight at +28,8%

Compared to January 2025, turnover grew by 7,1%, from approximately 1,4 to approximately 1,5 billion euros. The figure is very positive in itself, but it becomes excellent if we look at the spending, i.e., how much players actually lost.

In January 2026, the spending of Italians on online betting was 204,8 million euros. Compared to the 159 million spent in January last year, the difference is an incredible +28,8%. The explanation, simply put, lies in the fact that bookmakers were “better” at calibrating the odds.

Beyond the macro-data, we are most interested in market shares, to better understand “who is in charge”, so to speak. After the new licensing regime came into force last November, the already existing oligopoly has become even more consolidated.

In the spending market, leadership belongs to Lottomatica Scommesse, understood as a group and therefore including both the corporate brand and others, including Goldbet and Planetwin365. Lottomatica’s market share in January 2026 was 28,55%, down from 30,89% twelve months ago, but still clearly in first place.

In second place, Sisal Sport consolidates, moving from 16,99 to 19,41%, for a growth of 14% and probably the best single operator at this time. If we then add this figure to that of Snai, which falls from 10,7 to 9,53%, PokerStars Sport (from 0,7 to 1,19%) and Betfair (from 0,47 to 0,4%), we also have the global figure for the Flutter group, which stands at approximately 30,5%. Thus, the two largest groups cover almost 60% of the online betting spending market.

If we also add Eurobet, whose data concerns the entire Entain group (including bwin and Gioco Digitale), the oligopoly is complete. In January 2026, Eurobet took a market share of 9,17%, slightly down on an annual basis compared to 9,91% in January 2025. Therefore, the trio of the most relevant groups in Italy at the moment takes well over two-thirds of the spending market.

The only exception to the large groups among the top 5 operators is Bet365, which also recorded good growth from 10,60% to 11,34% and is firmly in third place.

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Also noteworthy is the Betsson Group, which stands at 0,67% and recorded growth of 71,8%. The “+” sign for Netwin is even sensational, because its 0,36% is equivalent to a +300%. An outstanding result is also that of MarathonBet, which however had only recently arrived last year, so the growth from 0,05 to 0,37% is excellent but in some way physiological. Among others, William Hill falls from 0,84 to 0,65% and 888sport goes from 0,28 to 0,19%.

Below is the detail of the top 5 operators in the online betting spending market:

Retail and virtual betting: three groups devour the market

Agimeg has also provided data regarding the retail sector, i.e., betting in agencies. The data collected concerns not only classic sports betting carried out in various points of sale, but also the virtual sports segment. Virtual betting is in fact growing vertically and, to date, covers approximately 28% of the total spent by Italians playing in agencies.

In detail, the month of January 2026 closed with spending on live sports betting of 124,6 million euros, while that for virtual sports was 49,2 million.

Therefore, considering a single value for spending of 173,8 million euros, played in the 9.773 points of sale surveyed by the Customs and Monopolies Agency, the hierarchical scale of the operators also emerges here.

Playing roles as absolute protagonists are the two main groups, Lottomatica with approximately 40% of total points of sale, Flutter with 35.5%. Further back, but with a far from irrelevant share, is Eurobet/Entain with 10,7% of agencies and corners present on Italian territory.

These balances, obviously, deeply affect the spending market. Lottomatica, which with the acquisition of SKS365 has also taken over the many Planetwin365 shops scattered across the territory, is largely in the lead with 43,6% of total spending. The two main Flutter brands for this sector (Snai and Sisal) follow with a total of 31,8%, then Eurobet & co with 15,27%. Therefore, the triptych formed by Lottomatica, Flutter and Entain covers over 90% of the spending market on retail betting. Below is the detail:

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