Flutter confirms Betfair plans to leave Italy’s online gambling market

Flutter Entertainment confirmed that its Betfair brand plans to leave Italy's online gambling market, stopping its Exchange, Sportsbook and Casino offerings there. The company said the decision was based on regulatory changes that it said had made the Betfair Exchange product no longer commercially sustainable. No final date for switching off the gambling services has been announced.

A Flutter Entertainment spokesperson said the recent regulatory changes in Italy had made Betfair Exchange no longer sustainable from a commercial point of view. The company said the activities concerned represent a very limited share of Italian revenue and that the decision will have no consequences for the group's other brands or for its employees in the country. Flutter did not specify which individual obligations, costs or adjustments led to the loss of commercial sustainability of the Italian product.

Betfair told its commercial partners that activities aimed at the Italian market will cease from 31 October 2026. Affiliates were asked to remove promotional content intended for Italian users by 29 October. Commissions accrued in October will be processed and paid in November, in the last scheduled payment cycle. The cessation concerns only the Italian programme; affiliate agreements for other markets where Betfair will continue to operate remain valid.

The 31 October deadline refers to the affiliate programme and does not necessarily coincide with the date the gambling services close. No timetable has been disclosed for handling customer accounts.

The decision is notable for the betting exchange model that has historically defined Betfair's offering. In an exchange, users bet directly against each other rather than against a bookmaker: the platform matches compatible offers, letting participants back an outcome or bet against it, and the concessionaire acts as intermediary and retains a commission on net winnings. The model depends on available liquidity and the number of active users, with enough participants needed to match bets at the requested odds.

Italy's remote gambling market is affected by the implementation of the reform introduced by legislative decree 25 March 2024, no. 41. For bets with direct interaction between players, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli published the PSID 3.0 communication protocol in August 2026, later updated in the version of 2 September. The ADM documentation sets out the technical framework for this type of betting.