- Participants from the Italian market explore the latest trends in advertising and marketing
- Themes such as regulation, creative marketing and responsible practices dominate the conversation
Day 2 at iGB Live 2025 dives into some of the shifting marketing trends within one of the industry’s most intriguing landscapes.
Moderated by Mauro de Fabritiis of MDF Partners, Fabritiis begins with a presentation that outlines the fast-growing presence of omnichannel operators within the landscape - especially since 2018.
A general overview of the market highlights that the onboarding of new concessions with stricter views on compliance and cost is also underlined by Fabritiis, who also alludes to the requirement for operators to specify investment into responsible gaming when they enter the market.
Moving on to the ‘big question,’ Fabritiis poses the query of ‘how can operators best compete without advertising.’
First, he underlines four key trends within the industry:
- A shift to programmatic advertising
- Evolving affiliation
- More influencers and tipsters
- Casino streaming
Fabritiis then opens up with his first question to Sisal Managing Director, Marco Tiso, he asks whether it is possible to promote effectively within the rigidly regulated sector.
Tiso highlights that the online market accounts for around 25% - but varies across different verticals, expressing the differing opportunities across sectors. He also underlines that the online market has been growing rapidly in recent years - transforming the overall landscape. Another consideration is the rules around communication - including the advertising ban.
With these points outlined, Tiso states that RG offers a way of communicating with players and consumers. He also explains that Sisal have started working on a better integrated online experience to help promote growth. He also states that leveraging targeted communications can help to optimise marketing investments, especially for the ‘right’ customers, who will be interested in the offerings.
The Sisal MD also explains how the company differentiates between its land-based and online strategies - explaining how they attempt to leverage their presence in one area in order to help complement the growth in the other.
Still, he outlines that future remains very clearly online. As such, he goes back to highlight how omnichannel operators are growing much more rapidly in Italy.
Fabritiis moves on to DT9 Group CEO, Danilo di Tota, querying him on his own advertising strategies within the Italian marketplace.
Tota states that one solution that they found following the advertising ban was to understand how they can communicate with their users within their own channels - utilising social media activations and digital without direct advertising.
Fabritiis then asks PowerMediaGroup CEO, Morten Marcussen about how AI is helping to tackle the advertising landscape in Italy.
Marcussen explains how you can create things like pre-match articles and related content for SEO to help create engagement without directly communicating via advertising with players.
Moving on to the responsible gaming view, Fabritiis addresses the panel by stating that we are in a ‘third era’ of regulation, which has moved on from trial and error (one) to implementation (two) to now trying to create a win-win for players and operators.
Ewa Bakun, Director of Industry Insight and Engagement at Clarion Gaming gives her two pence as someone who has been observing the Italian market from afar for some time - saying it has been a ‘questionable leader’ on advertising, and has certainly set a precedent that other nations have followed.
She states that we are starting to see people approach RG as an opportunity across the globe, the notion of player health in online gambling is shifting quickly away from being an afterthought - and the messaging around ‘health’ is becoming a more consistent part of the user’s experience.
Nevertheless, Bakun also states that there could be some regulatory changes regarding advertising in Italy, saying she is fascinated to see how Italian operators approach potentially being able to engage with some kind of responsible gaming advertising within the market.
Moving back to Tiso, he explains how RG is an important pillar for Sisal, highlighting that it is not just an important topic, but also a way to stay ahead of competitors by fostering a healthy environment. He states that they try to educate all of their customers - by encouraging lower deposit limits (among other initiatives) in order to walk them through how to use the safety tools implemented as part of the platform.
Fabritiis concurs that RG will, long-term become a game changer not just for a healthy culture, but also to ensure constant revenue streams from eliminating problematic players.
Closing the conversation - Fabritiis highlights the potential of the complex yet mature Italian market, with changes around the corner prompting new opportunities for competitive ideas, alongside responsible gaming presenting further opportunities for creativity in the market.
