How Italy’s Licencing Reform Is Changing Operators’ Needs

With new online gaming concessions in operation and technical requirements continuing to evolve, Ray Lee, Director of Business Development, TaDa Gaming, discusses how TaDa is responding to the factors now shaping supplier choice in Italy.

Italy’s online gaming market has entered a new phase. Following the award of 52 concessions to 46 operators in September 2025, the new nine-year concession framework took effect in November of that year. With a €7 million one-off fee per concession and a requirement for one national-domain website per concession, operators are now working within a framework that places significant weight on their long-term commercial decisions.

For all suppliers, this created the need for a different approach. Alongside access to a diverse portfolio, operators need content partners that can deliver differentiation, demonstrate performance and support their commercial success for the long term. 

Entering Italy in 2024 reinforced the importance of our glocalisation strategy for combining global gaming intelligence with local market insight. With more than 86 titles now certified under Italy’s new 2026 regulations, including slots, crash games and our distinctive fish-shooting content, we built our proposition around five drivers: certification, local relevance, differentiation, proven performance and partnerships for growth.

Certification

Certification and compliance remain the starting point for any supplier seeking to operate in Italy. At TaDa, compliance is built into the development process, supported by our experience across multiple regulated markets. 

While operators need confidence that content meets the regulatory requirements and can be integrated into their regulated offering, certification only opens business negotiations. It does not guarantee that a game will engage players or that a provider will contribute to long-term commercial performance.

What matters now is how certified content performs in practice: for us, it’s about which mechanics appeal to Italian players, which titles sustain interest and what the data tells us about opportunities for future development.

Local relevance

As a data-driven business, we use international research and feedback to identify mechanics and formats with established appeal, while local insight helps determine how those elements can be adapted to Italian player preferences and operator requirements.

Our Italian line-up is led by Gold Mine Express, one of our top-performing titles across European markets, alongside the classic slot appeal of 40 Sparkling Crown, the TriLuck™ innovation of 3 Lightning Blitz and Gallina Fortunata, a title built specifically for the Italian market.

This balance illustrates the value of applying a market-informed content strategy. For operators, the objective today is to understand how game performance develops and what that means for their individual audience.

Differentiation

Our fish-shooting portfolio adds another dimension, giving operators the opportunity to explore a different content format alongside more established casino categories.

And, as Italy’s concession framework reshapes the commercial environment, differentiation has become ever more important for operators competing for player attention. 

TaDa’s fish-shooting titles, including Ocean King Jackpot and Mega Fishing, bring a different style of gameplay to our Italian proposition. Combining multiplayer interaction with skill-influenced decision-making and customisation options, the format provides an exciting addition for players alongside conventional slot experiences.

As the No. 1 provider for fish-shooting, our KPIs for increased engagement, higher daily active users, player retention and up to 50% uplift in session-length results are impressive.

Proven performance

While a game’s initial performance can indicate success, it does not automatically lead to sustained retention. Operators need to be convinced as to how activity develops after launch, how different player groups interact with a title and whether performance is consistent with their wider commercial objectives.

And this is also where technical delivery matters. Reliable integration and responsive support help operators introduce content smoothly. The objective for us is to provide that operational foundation for evaluating performance and to build trust within the relationship.

Recent technical developments underline the importance of operational readiness. In August 2026, Italy’s Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) published version 3.1.0 of the PGDA communication protocol for remote skill games, fixed-odds games of chance and non-tournament card games, with an updated version in September. While technical requirements are distinct from the commercial criteria used to select content, keeping pace with the regulated environment is an important part of delivering a dependable supplier relationship. 

Partner for growth

Italy’s licencing reform has not fundamentally changed what makes a good casino game, but it has changed the commercial context in which operators choose their content partners.

Through developing relationships across Italy’s operator and platform ecosystem, including with AdmiralBet, Betsson/StarCasinò, Eurobet, Light & Wonder, Octavian Lab, Pixelo and ZonaGioco, we have built our brand and reach. These strategic relationships enhance our ability to deliver the right content, facilitate distribution and develop an understanding of individual partner requirements.

For TaDa, being a growth partner means bringing together certified content, relevant differentiation, performance insight and dependable delivery. It also means remaining responsive as operators’ needs and technical requirements evolve.

And it’s not just operators and players who have discovered what we do. Across 2026, TaDa has been honoured with industry nominations and awards for innovation, including for our unique fish-shooting titles and our joined-up approach to gamification, suggesting that our ambition to positively shape the iGaming industry is delivering.

As Italy’s regulated market continues to evolve, we are focused on giving operators content based on the factors that matter most: relevance, differentiation and performance, fully supported by the quality of the partnership behind the games. 

To book a meeting with the TaDa team at SiGMA World, Stand H6-6036, Fiera Roma, 3–5 November 2026, please email business@tadagaming.com.