Football clubs hope the Chamber of Deputies will annul the 2019 ban.

Italy.- Italian legislators have begun to review the country’s ban on gambling sponsorship in sports. The ban was introduced in 2019 under the Dignity Decree of 2018, but Serie A clubs have claimed that the legislation was passed without proper legislative process.

The Senate’s Culture Commission has endorsed a resolution that called for a debate on the law as part of plans to support Italian football. It will now be up to deputies to decide whether to draft a new decree on gambling sponsorships to annul or modify this specific aspect of the Dignity Decree.

Maurizio Leo, deputy minister for economy and finance, and sports minister Andrea Abodi will conduct the initial review. They will meet with Serie A president Ezio Simonelli and other officials.

Abodi has mentioned plans to charge sports betting operators a 1 per cent betting allocation fee to fund modernisation at football stadiums, support women’s football and upgrade grassroots facilities and youth systems. There is no current timeline for the review, which has been criticised by the 5Star Movement and the Democratic Party.

The Dignity Decree was passed during a Lega Nord and 5Star coalition government. Only the question of sports sponsorship is being considered in this review, not the general ban on gambling adverts. But Roberto Alesse, director of the ADM, had pledged to review Italy’s ban on gambling ads.

The Serie A estimates that the ban on gambling sponsorship costs Italian football around €100m a year, leaving clubs struggling to compete financially with Europe’s biggest teams. Serie A clubs reported a total drop in income of €350m for 2023/2024.

A tender for new online gambling licences in Italy opened in December and will run until May 30, 2025. Licences are expected to be granted by October. The green light for the new regulatory framework had been held up after the Malta Gambling Authority (MGA) submitted a detailed opinion on B2B technicalities, leading to an extension of the standstill period.