PokerStars.it adds slots content; Italian gaming reforms bog down

Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars brand has livened up its Italian-facing site with the addition of new slots content.

PokerStars.it launched blackjack and roulette games last month and has now expanded its casino options to include slots play. Stars’ new slots titles include content developed in-house as well as games provided by third-party providers such as Leander Games and Quickspin.

Stars’ Italian country manager Marco Trucco told eGaming Review that May’s introduction of table games hadn’t resulted in any “significant negative impact” to the site’s core poker business. Trucco offered no timeline on when PokerStars.it might follow the lead of its Spanish counterpart and add sports betting to the product mix, saying only that a sports launch would depend on the product being ready and regulators giving their okay.

Italian news agency AGIMEG recently claimed that Stars had captured over three-quarters of the Italian market’s tournament poker revenue. Stars’ tournament take is roughly ten times higher than second-ranked Lottomatica and Stars’ share of Italy’s cash-games market is believed to be only slightly less dominant at 54%. But the overall online poker pie is shrinking, falling 20% last year, according to a Milan Polytechnic report.