Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli, Italian online gaming and betting regulator, is set to issue more e-sports licences to channel the vertical to the regulated betting operators working in the country.
The move by the regulator follows news of SNAI receiving the first e-sports licence in the country and resulted of e-sports’ growing popularity and betting operators strive to attract potential e-sports punters to their websites and cross-sell them into their ‘traditional’ sports betting offerings.
The first e-sports licences will cover the League of Legends and DOTA 2 franchises and will be regulated under the July 2013 betting decree on sports and other events as identified by the licensees and verified by the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli.
Valerie Peano, partner at the Rome-based law firm EGLA, said the betting decree of July 2013 placed: “limitations on the types of bets that could be placed: the nature of the bets must not include any sort of violent, indecent or discriminating offer. Therefore, esports instigating violent behaviours and/or any kind of discrimination will not be accepted.”
Operators that receive a licence will list the e-sports events they will be offering and the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli will add the events in the schedule along with the results in real-time through the country’s central system.
“As a general rule, licensees shall submit a technical report to detail (i) the esport event/s, (ii) the bet/s to be included within said customised betting program and (iii) the results certification modalities of the event through two different sources of information, one official (e.g. federations) as well as (iv) the licensee’s system description for relevant data registration and storage,” said Peano.
Licensed operators will also have to offer solutions to facilitate access to information by the regulator, especially with regard to live events so it can monitor and inspect activities.
Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli will also maintain authority over betting integrity matters and the risks which are associated with irregular betting patterns.
