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2nd Annual Race for Italian Market Conference
By October 2008 Italy will, as a result of an amended decree, open a new bid-process for the 329 betting shop licenses that were, according to the EU, extended unfairly in 1999.
The announcement by the Italian government that it was to re-launch the bidding process was both inevitable and unavoidable given the decision of the ECJ on 13 September 2007, which clearly ruled that the move in 1999 to grant extensions to the 329 existing licenses was illegal. There will also be the second round of betting licenses as 210 licenses are still unallocated from 2007's bid.
However, in the highly politicized world of Italian bureaucracy, a new government invariably means new people at the top in the various government bodies. The new director general at state gaming authority AAMS is Raffaele Ferrara, taking over from Giorgio Tino who originally masterminded the liberalization of the betting market ahead of the 2007 licensing process.
But it is believed that Ferrara, having just taken up the role, is not yet in a position to take control of such a hot potato as the drawing up of the terms of the tender process for the betting shops, still constitutes the lion's share of revenues for the declining Italian horseracing industry.
The issue will be a key focus of the 2nd Annual Race for Italian Market Conference to be held in Rome on the 5th December 2008.
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