Flutter Will Close Betfair in Italy, Calling Its Exchange No Longer Sustainable

Flutter Entertainment is taking Betfair's exchange, sportsbook and casino out of Italy and blames regulatory changes it has not named. Customers have no closing date yet, and the decision lands just over two weeks before Italy's deadline for exchange operators to certify their systems under new technical rules.

• Flutter Entertainment will close Betfair's betting exchange, sportsbook and casino in Italy, saying planned regulatory changes have left the Betfair Exchange no longer commercially sustainable
• Flutter has not said when play will stop or what happens to customer accounts and balances, and none of the reports describes customers moving to Sisal, Snai or PokerStars
• Betfair's Italian affiliate programme ends on 31 October, and partners have until 29 October to remove material aimed at Italian customers
• Flutter calls Betfair a marginal part of its Italian revenue, without giving a figure, and says its other brands and its staff in Italy are unaffected
• On 20 October Flutter put up to 1,400 UK and Ireland jobs at risk, blaming tax rises, and it reports third-quarter results on 4 November

Flutter Pulls All Three Betfair Products From Italy

Flutter Entertainment (NYSE: FLUT) has confirmed it will close Betfair's exchange, sportsbook and casino in Italy. In a statement published by Agipronews and Italian Gaming News on 26 October, the group said planned regulatory changes had made the Betfair Exchange in Italy no longer sustainable from a commercial point of view, and that it had therefore decided to end Betfair Sportsbook and Casino there shortly as well. It called Betfair a marginal component of its Italian revenue and said the decision would not affect its other brands or its employees in the country. Flutter also told SBC News the products would soon close.

Flutter did not say which changes it meant. Versions of the statement differ on one word: Agipronews and Italian Gaming News report "planned" changes, Jamma "recent" ones.

Customers Have No Date Yet

The products will be switched off progressively, Agipronews reports. Flutter has given no date for ending services or for closing customers' gaming accounts, Jamma reports, and no coverage describes a transfer of customers to another Flutter brand. The only dates concern partners: Italian Gaming News reports that Flutter invoked clause 12.5 of its affiliate terms to end the Italian programme on 31 October, told affiliates to remove content aimed at Italian users by 29 October and will pay October commissions in November as the final cycle.

World Casino News reports that the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) still lists Betfair Italia S.r.l. as an authorised operator under concession 16028. Flutter has not disclosed Betfair's Italian revenue, customer numbers or balances held.

The Rules in the Background

Italy's online market now runs under Legislative Decree 41 of 25 March 2024. Concessions last up to nine years and cost €7 million each, €4 million on award and €3 million when service starts, and one corporate group may apply for no more than five. Each concession is tied to one national-domain website run directly by the concessionaire, which may not make it available to third parties, even within its own group. DLA Piper counted 52 concessions awarded to 46 operators. The regime took effect in November 2025, SBC News reports, and Flutter therefore needs separate licences for Betfair, Sisal, Snai and PokerStars.

The exchange has its own layer. The decree defines it as betting with direct interaction between players, who can act as backer or bank while the concessionaire only puts them in contact, anonymously. In a June 2026 letter reported by Italian Gaming News, ADM said the existing ministerial decree still applies to it until a new one is adopted, alongside new technical rules that require connection to ADM's central system through version 3.0 of the PSID protocol. Concessionaires must certify their systems under the new rules by 13 November 2026, Agimeg and Italian Gaming News report.

Italy Is Where Flutter Is Growing

Flutter's second-quarter release shows Southern Europe and Africa revenue up 36% to $896 million, or 18% organically, which it credits to acquisitions and "exceptional execution in Italy and Türkiye". Sisal reached a record market share in June, the company says, and Flutter extended its leading online position in Italy, measured on ADM data, after moving Snai customers onto Sisal's platform in April. The release gives no figures for Betfair. Flutter completed its €1.9 billion purchase of Sisal in August 2022, the Irish Times reported, and bought Snai in April 2025.

Flutter Is Blaming the Exchange Rules, Not the Licence Fee

The one-site, one-concession structure means every brand Flutter keeps in Italy needs its own €7 million concession, which makes a small brand beside Sisal and Snai hard to justify. But Flutter's statement points at planned changes affecting the exchange, and the dated obligation there is the 13 November certification. Flutter has not said whether that, or the content of the forthcoming ministerial decree, was decisive, so the link remains an inference. Its wording matters too: the sportsbook and casino close "therefore", which suggests the exchange was the reason to keep a separate Betfair business in Italy.

Italy's Exchange Has Always Been Short of Liquidity

Betfair launched its Italian exchange in 2014 with a domestic liquidity pool separate from its international one, World Casino News notes. In 2015 Guido Marsiletti, then Betfair's commercial and product manager, said it had taken €47 million in bets in its first year but lacked international liquidity and horse racing, Agipronews reported. In January 2021, Agipronews reported, Betfair said Italy's 0.5% "salvasport" levy on turnover equalled 103% of its Italian exchange profit, and it had closed hundreds of high-volume accounts. An exchange earns commission on net winnings, so costs that do not scale with that margin hit it harder than a sportsbook.

The Licensed Market Loses a Product, Not Just a Brand

Sportsbook and casino customers can move to Sisal, Snai or other licensed brands; Flutter has not said where exchange customers should go. Italy blocks unlicensed sites at scale, as its order against Polymarket and 292 other domains showed, but if experienced exchange users go abroad rather than to another licensed product, that is a channelisation cost ADM will have to weigh.

Flutter is consolidating in Italy around Sisal and Snai and dropping a brand whose only distinct product it no longer finds commercially sustainable. Until it names the rules that decided this and gives customers a closing date, the exit is announced but not yet explained.