AGCOM Consults on Tighter Rules for Betting Brands' Infotainment Sites Under Italy's Ad Ban

Italy's communications regulator wants an operator's ".news" or ".sport" brand to escape the gambling advertising ban only if it runs a real newsroom, links nowhere near the betting site and looks nothing like it. The draft lands two days after the Constitutional Court made the ban's €50,000 minimum fine reducible.

• The Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) opened a 30-day consultation with delibera 234/26/CONS, published on 22 October, on rewriting the brand exclusion in its 2019 guidelines to the Dignity Decree's advertising ban
• It is a proposal, not a final decision: an operator brand would stay outside the ban only if the activity it names is genuinely autonomous, with its own trademark and, for news, a named editor, a newsroom and original content
• Links, redirects, promo codes and shared accounts leading to the same group's gambling offer would be barred, as would odds, bonuses, jackpots, the licence number and the ADM logo
• Shirt and pitchside sponsorships, paid search and placements on comparison and review sites would face stricter scrutiny, under a catch-all for any message that works as an advertising hook
• It comes as the Constitutional Court made the €50,000 minimum fine reducible on 20 October, and as Rome weighs up to €1 billion from gambling for the 2027 Budget

AGCOM Wants Operators' News Brands to Prove They Are Newsrooms

AGCOM's Council approved delibera 234/26/CONS on 7 October 2026 and published it with two annexes on 22 October. It consults on one paragraph: section 7 (Exclusions) of the guidelines in delibera 132/19/CONS of April 2019, which set out how AGCOM applies Article 9 of the 2018 Dignity Decree, the general ban on direct and indirect gambling advertising. Davide Gallino, the official running it, had said on 14 October that it was coming.

The 2019 text excludes a brand that identifies, besides gambling, other activities "of an autonomous character", provided nothing evokes gambling beyond the provider's name. That clause has kept operators' ".news", ".sport" and ".live" brands on top-flight shirts, as AGCOM itself noted in July, and several clubs kept partnerships through such brands, according to SBC News, which reported the consultation on 23 October.

Under Annex A, the exclusion would apply only if every condition is met. The separate activity must run continuously with its own organisation, must not serve to acquire traffic for the gambling offer, and needs a trademark registered for classes unconnected with gambling. A news or editorial service must be on the Register of Communication Operators (ROC) where required, with a named responsible editor, an identifiable newsroom, verifiable regular updates and original content. A site that disclaims being a news outlet for lack of regular publication could not claim it.

The draft would ban any link, redirect, banner, promotional code, shared login or single account giving access to the same group's gambling offer, including responsible-gambling initiatives under Legislative Decree 41/2024, the decree that reorganised online gambling. The brand would have to drop the gambling brand's lettering, colours and symbol, and a bare logo would not qualify. Odds, tips, jackpots, bonuses and betting slips would be excluded, and the concession number, the logo of the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) or a risk warning would count as evidence that the message is about gambling.

AGCOM would assess with "particular rigour" sponsorships, billboards and LED systems in sporting contexts, paid search on keywords for betting or operator brands, and placements on sites that offer, compare or review gambling services. A closing clause would remove the exclusion whenever the message, medium, context and audience, taken together, amount to an advertising hook, and would let AGCOM demand documents on trademarks, traffic flows and financial ties. Submissions go by certified email within a deadline Annex B calls peremptory, which on iGaming Times' count falls around 21 November.

A Review Promised in July, Backed by Fines

AGCOM flagged the review in delibera 200/26/CONS of 29 July, saying concessionaires' ".live", ".sport" or ".news" signs could serve to evade the ban. In December 2023 it fined Meta Platforms Ireland €5.85 million under delibera 331/23/CONS over paid gambling content on Facebook and Instagram, after rulings against Google Ireland and Twitch. Fines are 20% of the value of the advertising or sponsorship, with a floor of €50,000 per violation. In judgment 172/2026 of 20 October, the Constitutional Court held that floor unconstitutional to the extent it cannot be lowered where manifestly disproportionate, in the case of a content creator fined €157,000 over videos that earned him about €1,000. It noted that most AGCOM fines are set at the minimum, and left the ban intact.

Neither leg of the wider gambling reform has changed the ban. ADM awarded the new online concessions to 46 operators on 17 September 2025 under the 2024 decree, while the power to reorganise land-based gambling lapsed on 29 August without a decree. The Meloni government is considering easing the restrictions, with Sports Minister Andrea Abodi leading talks with the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), Serie A and the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), but no repeal has taken effect, SBC News reports.

The Test Moves From the Message to the Business Behind It

The 2019 clause asked whether a message was ambiguous; the draft asks whether the business behind the brand is real: its trademark, its staff, its editor, its traffic and its money. That puts the burden on operators and their media partners to document independence. The closing clause matters most, because it lets AGCOM deny the exclusion even when every formal box is ticked. Operators are likely to argue that a catch-all undoes the certainty the rest of the draft provides. AGCOM's July finding points one way: a ".news" logo on a shirt can work as advertising in all but name.

Shirt Fronts Are the Target, Not Odds Comparison

The draft does not amend the 2019 provision that odds and offer comparison services are not advertising if restrained, transparent and not misleading. What it changes is how operators' brands appear on shirts, boards, search results and the comparison and review sites, often affiliate businesses, where paid placement would draw extra scrutiny. If adopted as drafted, it pushes the branded infotainment model, not comparison as such, to the margins. The channelisation risk cuts both ways: licensed brands lose visibility in Italian football, while in England Entain counts unlicensed gambling sponsors at 11 of 20 Premier League clubs.

Softer Fines and Harder Rules Point the Same Way

The Court and AGCOM move in opposite directions on severity but the same direction on precision. The €50,000 floor can now bend for a marginal creator, but corporate cases, where 20% of a sponsorship deal is the larger figure, are largely unaffected, and a tighter exclusion gives AGCOM firmer ground for them. If the government does reopen sponsorship, the conditions now being written could become the template for a licensed regime rather than a footnote to a ban.

AGCOM is moving to close the side door that kept betting brands on Italian shirts, while the government talks about reopening the front one. Whichever moves first will decide whether these conditions become an enforcement tool or a licensing standard.