The 888 Group Excepts First Italian Sports Bet

Tuesday, October 16th had The 888 Group (headquartered in Gibraltar), the online gaming firm that owns brands Pacific Poker and Casino-on-Net, begins accepting its first bets on their new Italian sports betting website.

It is going to turn out to be a pretty sweet deal for The Group especially since estimations by analysts have the Italian sports betting site bringing in around £2.46 Million (about $5 Million US) to £4.93 ($10 Million US) in annual revenue for 2008.

In a comment made to Reuters, Chief Executive Gigi Levy said "It will boost revenues but it will also build customer numbers so we are in a good position next year when skill games we are strong in, like poker are allowed." In the reorganization structure of 888 after the US market was closed out of online gambling, Levy also stated that over the next two years, the Italian market would be one of the firm's central points.

Thankfully from European lawmakers compelling force to allow games of skill in the issue, Italy will be slowly entering the gambling scene. A positive move since initially they were opposed to the idea of Internet betting.

The issue being on the forefront of everyone's mind, the definitive term of skill game versus game of chance is highly anticipated and hoped to be brought out by year end.