Flutter Entertainment has confirmed it is shutting down the Betfair Exchange, Sportsbook and Casino products in Italy, telling industry media that recent regulatory changes have made the Betfair Italy exchange business no longer commercially sustainable. The closure affects one of the market’s most recognisable betting exchange brands and comes with an accelerated wind-down of its local affiliate programme.
What happened
Betfair is fully winding down in Italy as parent firm Flutter Entertainment responds to regulatory changes in the market, with the Betfair Exchange, Sportsbook and Casino set to be discontinued
. A Flutter spokesperson said
recent regulatory changes in Italy have made the Betfair Exchange product no longer commercially sustainable
.
The shift follows a new Italian licensing framework.
Operators now need an individual licence for each of their brands rather than one covering multiple brands, meaning Flutter must hold separate licences for Betfair, Sisal, Snai and PokerStars issued by the Customs and Monopolies Agency
. The rules fall under
new regulations introduced under Legislative Decree No. 41 of March 2024, which require operators to pay €7 million for a licence lasting up to nine years
.
Flutter has not given a precise closure date for customers but has moved faster on the affiliate side.
A letter sent to Betfair affiliates states that the Italian programme will end on 31 October 2026, with partners instructed to remove promotional content aimed at Italian customers by 29 October
.
Commission generated in October is due to be processed and paid in November as the final payment cycle
.
Why it matters
For Flutter, the financial exposure appears limited. The company has described the closures as covering
a very small proportion of its Italian revenue, with no impact on its other brands or employees
. The wider Italian business, which also includes Sisal, Snaitech and PokerStars, continues to operate as normal.
The bigger signal is for affiliates and partners working with exchange-style products across regulated European markets. A compressed shutdown window, promotional content removed within days and a single final commission cycle leaves little time for partners to redirect traffic or renegotiate terms. Affiliates that built content or campaigns specifically around Betfair Italy’s exchange offering now need to pivot quickly toward Flutter’s remaining Italian brands or other operators, a reminder that licensing reform can change affiliate economics faster than commercial planning cycles typically allow.
The bigger picture
Italy’s regulatory overhaul is reshaping the competitive landscape for every operator with exposure there.
Italy’s Ministry of Finance and Economy is projecting it will gain €1 billion in gambling taxes between 2027 and 2028
, underlining how the new framework is designed to tighten both compliance requirements and tax take simultaneously. Exchange-style betting, where customers wager against each other rather than a bookmaker, appears to sit awkwardly within rules built around fixed-odds betting regulation.
Italy remains a significant market for Flutter despite the Betfair retreat.
The wider Southern Europe and Africa region, which covers Italy, was the group’s third largest region between January and June 2026, with revenue up 36% year-over-year to $896 million
. The Betfair Italy closure therefore looks like a targeted product retreat rather than a signal of broader weakness, arriving alongside separate cost discipline moves at group level, including the recently announced cut of 1,400 jobs across the UK and Ireland.
For other operators running exchange or peer-to-peer betting products in Italy, the Betfair exit raises the question of whether the format can survive under the new licensing regime at all, or whether further consolidation around standard fixed-odds books is now inevitable.
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