The Betting Exchange in Italy

The betting exchange in Italy is available from the beginning of April 2014.

Betfair Exchange means a particular online betting method that was introduced by Betfair at the beginning of this millennium, thanks to two English friends who founded Betfair at that time and started a real revolution in the world of online betting, making them similar to what was already happening in the financial markets with corporate securities.

Until a few years ago it was unofficially allowed to open an account in England and operate from other countries, such as Italy, but then, from 2010 onwards Betfair.com has no longer accepted the opening of accounts by Italians., In view of the opening of the new Italian Betfair Exchange.

Fortunately, the decree relating to law no. 47 which normalizes the Betting Exchange in Italy, published in the Official Gazette on 9 May 2013, dictates precise regulations for the introduction of this new betting method, aimed at all operators authorized to play remotely by AAMS, who, if they wish to provide betting exchange services in Italy will necessarily have to comply.

From the study of the ministerial decree on the Betting Exchange and subsequent communications relating to the communication protocol to be adopted to interface with Sogei, it is clear that the development of the Betting Exchange in Italy differs from the Betting Exchange of the .com sites ( betfair.com, Betdaq.com)

A first consideration is related to the lower liquidity and frequency of trading of shares, which in fact is partly slowing down the growth of the Betting Exchange in Italy, confining it for the moment as a niche product.

The decree in fact establishes the ban on creating a network between different platforms of betting exchange concessionaires (which in fact would have helped to concentrate liquidity in a single book for each event), but not to create a single network among its customers in this way . as did Active Games.

This all-Italian limitation will in fact favor the birth of many betting exchange platforms that will compete with each other, but only those who can offer high liquidity and consistent exchanges will prevail, at least until the possibility of unified liquidity in the betting exchange is reconsidered (as happens on the stock exchange): until this happens there will be some liquidity problems in the betting exchange in Italy.

 To operate successfully and risk little in the Betting Exchange in Italy it is desirable to have a high liquidity in the books or ladders, so as to be able to close at any time and exit the game with a decent profit or in any case limiting the damage: greater liquidity automatically entails more exchanges and therefore more tax collections (taxes are only on the profit, but in the betting exchange in Italy the bets are exchanged between players, so each loss automatically corresponds to a win – from the other operator – taxable ).

Another limitation imposed by the decree that regulates the betting exchange in Italy is the availability of only some of the sports markets offered by Betfair.com which will consist, at least initially, in the AAMS betting schedule, and therefore with the great exclusion of horse racing from the betting exchange., which is in fact the market with the highest volumes of any other sport.

In the Betting Exchange Italy a minimum amount has also been set for each bet, that is 0.50 euro cents, it will not be possible to win sums exceeding 10,000 euro deriving from a single bet.

 It will not be possible to lay multiples like on Betfair.com and bets will therefore be singles only on certain sporting events.

The maximum commissions for the betting exchange in Italy that the AAMS authorized operator can charge the customer are set at 10% of the profits made.

(But this only expresses a maximum value and since there is in fact a lot of competition between operators it will not be difficult to find someone with commissions even in the order of half) The government taxes on the Betting Exchange in Italy are set at 20%, calculated on the gross profit generated by the customer on every single operation.