Adapting to Changing
Environment Francesco Ruffo Scaletta
Delegated Director ASSI - Temporary Management
General Assembly & 46th International Conference IFHA - Paris, 8 October 2012
1 Gambling market in Italy
• .....The opening-up of the market to sports betting and other kinds of gambling (Superenalotto, scratchcards, and subsequently slot machines and Video lotteries) caused an unstoppable decline in revenues from horseracing and led to the resultant grave economic and financial crisis in the entire Italian horse racing system due to the progressive reduction in funds for the industry. In 2011, slot machines and video lotteries accounted for more than 56% of the entire market revenue, while horse racing bets were just under 2% of total recorded revenue (Table 1 and Picture 1)....
Table 1 - 2011 Gambling market in Italy (Source: AAMS, 2012, except for Horse
betting)GAMES BETTING
TURNOVER(millions of
Euros)
MARKET SHARE
(%)
Horse betting 1,372 1.72
Lotto 6,810 8.53
Totalisator Games (SuperEnalotto, Win for Life, Superstar)
2,396 3.00
Lotteries 10,151 12.72
Sport betting 3,924 4.92
Bingo 1,850 2.32
Slot machinesof which Video lotteries
44,89614,865
56.2418.62
Skill games 2,251 2.82
Card games and other games
6,167 7.73
TOTAL 79,817 100.00
Picture 1 - 2011 Gambling market in Italy
4.92%
2.32%
12.72%
56.24%
3.00%
1.72%7.73%
2.82%
8.53% Horse betting
Lotto
Totalisator games
Lotteries
Sport betting
Bingo
Slot machines
Skill games
Card games and other games
2 Commercial transformation of gambling
• …..In view of the process of converting betting shops into "mini casinos", the figures on New Slot and VLT revenues, which have been instituted in the horseracing betting shops and agencies, have taken on a particular significance since 2004 (Table 2)….
Table 2 - Slot Machines, VLT and Horse Betting
Machines(number)
Franchesees
(number)
Betting turnover(millions of Euros)
Slot Machines 377,969 44,896
VLT 45,016 14,865
Horseracing betting(horse shops + sport shops + corners)
33,263 1,372
3 Sporting, employees, stud-books
• …..Under this new system, the commitment will continue to safeguard the great sporting (Tables 3.1 and 3.2) and agricultural heritage of the Italian horseracing industry, whose social and economic importance can be gauged from the estimated 50,000 employees in the sector. In addition to this figure there are also the supply chain activities (ranging from professional to craft activities, feed production, transporting horses, treating horses, manufacturing harnesses, accessories etc.), employing an estimated 20,000 people (Table 4). The number of horses on the stud-books kept by ASSI total 294,207, which is 45,46% of Italy's national horse population of 647,200 units (Table 5).
Table 3.1 - 2011 Horseracing Activity
Trotting racecoursesGallop racecoursesTotal*
182644
Trotting racing meetingsGallop racing meetingsTotal
1,332600
1,932
Trotting racesGallop races*a.a.*, a.a, a.a.o., p.s.a. and other racesTotal
10,9024,158172
15,232
Trotting startsGallop starts*a.a.*, a.a, a.a.o., p.s.a. and other races Total
116,77337,1891,709
155,671
Table 3.2 - 2011 Horseracing Activity
Trotting Prize money Euros)Gallop Prize money (Euros) and*a.a.*, a.a, a.a.o., p.s.a. and other breeds Prize money (Euros)Total (Euros)
112,956,709 71,763,049
184,719,758
On track betting (Euros)Off track betting (Euros)Total (Euros)
of which online betting
60,383,0821,312,025,064
1,372,408,14668,567,768**
*Some racecourses are counted twice as they dispute both trotting and gallop races.** Betting online represents the 5.00% of total horseracing betting and 0.007% of total Italian online betting.
Table 4 – Employees in the horseracing system
Number of employees 50,000
Number of employees in the supply chain sector (manufacturing harnesses, transporting horses, ...)
20,000
Table 5 – Italy’s horse population
Number of horses on the stud-books kept by ASSI
294,207
National horse population (units)
647,200
Percentage of horses on the stud-books kept by ASSI respect to national horse population
45.46 %
4 Land, horse breeding and horse feed
• About 610,000 ha of land (Table 6) are dedicated to horse breeding and the production of horse feed, of which over 280,000 ha are used directly for breeding. To appreciate the magnitude of this phenomenon and its importance to Italian agriculture one only has to compare these figures with (Picture 2), for example, the hectares dedicated to olive groves (1,191,000 ha), vineyards (777,000), orchards (437,000 ha) or tomatoes (113,000 ha)…..
Table 6 – Some comparative data (hectares)
Olive groves 1,191,000
Vineyards 777,000
Orchards 437,000
Horse feed (estimated) 330,000
Horse breeding (estimated) 280,000
Tomatoes 113,000
Picture 2 - Some comparative data
8.95%
3.61%
10.55%
13.97%
24.84%
38.08%
Olive groves
Vineyards
Orchards
Horse feed(estimatd)
Horse breeding(estimated)
Tomatoes
5 The Italian breeding
• …..The high levels of horse breeding excellence attained in these years has been the result of a widespread commitment, despite the difficult economic situation, to implement comprehensive multi-year programmes to support horse breeding which, in addition to the investments made by individual operators, have made it possible to enhance the quality and increase the quantity of Italy's horse breeding output (Table 7)…..
Table 7 - 2011 Italian Breeding*
Stallions Mares Births
Trotting 194 3,836 3,980
Galop 115 1,350 1,150
*a.a.*, a.a, a.a.o., p.s.a.
107 1.748 1,345
* Provisional data.
6 Horseracing betting and deductions
• The comparison with some European countries shows that the system of deductions, and in particular the percentages of deductions, is different from each other (Table 8).
Table 8. Horseracing betting and deductions in some European countries
in 2011(Source: IFHA, 2012)
Country
Betting turnover
(millions of
Euros)
Return to Customer
s
(%)
Received by
Government
(%)
Retained by Wagering Operators and Other Deductions
(%)
Returned to
Racing
(%)
France 9,920.0 75 10 5 10
Germany
98.1 72 0.7 9.7 17.6
Italy 1,372.4 70 5 12 14
Sweden 1,471.2 70 11 6 13
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION !