Betfair to close exchange, sportsbook and casino in Italy

Betfair is leaving Italy. Flutter Entertainment has confirmed it will close the Betfair Exchange in the Italian market and "soon discontinue" Betfair Sportsbook and Betfair Casino there as well. In our view, the key open question for Italian customers is timing: no closure date for the services, and no procedure for player accounts and balances, has been published.

"Recent regulatory changes in Italy have made the Betfair Exchange product no longer commercially sustainable," a Flutter spokesperson told SBC News. "As a result, Flutter has also decided to soon discontinue the Betfair Sportsbook and Casino product in the Italian market." Flutter added that the business is "a very small proportion of our revenue in Italy" and that the move "will have no impact on our other brands or employees based in Italy". Flutter gave the same statement in Italian to the trade outlet The iGaming Europe, as reported by Jamma. The group's other Italian brands, named by Jamma, SBC News and Agimeg, are Sisal, Snai and PokerStars.

What is closing, and why the exchange came first

A betting exchange works differently from a normal sportsbook. Instead of taking a price set by the bookmaker, customers bet against each other: one side backs an outcome to happen, the other lays it, betting that it will not. The exchange matches the two and takes a commission on net winnings. That model only works with enough customers on both sides of each market.

Flutter has not said which regulatory change made the exchange unviable. Italy's new online licensing regime, in force since November 2025, requires one licence per brand, and under it exchanges fall under fixed-odds betting rules, according to SBC News, which says it is unclear whether that or another rule prompted the exit. Jamma notes separate technical requirements for exchanges under Italy's reform, but Flutter has not linked its decision to any specific rule.

In Flutter's own wording, the sportsbook and casino closures follow from the exchange decision ("as a result"), so Italian customers lose the whole Betfair offer, not just the exchange.

The dates that are known

The only fixed dates so far concern affiliates, the websites that promote Betfair for a commission, not players. A letter to Italian affiliates, quoted by Agimeg, says:

• the Italian affiliate programme ends on 31 October 2026 (under clause 12.5 of its terms);
• affiliates must remove all promotional content aimed at customers in Italy by 29 October 2026;
• commission earned in October will be paid in November 2026, the final payment cycle.

Memberships in Betfair affiliate programmes for other countries are unchanged, the letter says.

What Italian customers should watch for

Agimeg reports that no date has been given for the operational shutdown of the exchange, sportsbook and casino, and that the services will close once customer accounts have been settled. Jamma likewise reports that Flutter has given no timing for handling and closing customers' gaming accounts.

In our view, until Betfair or Italy's regulator, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM), publishes a notice, as of 27 October nobody outside the company can say how long withdrawals stay open or what happens to unsettled bets. In our view, Italian customers with a balance should look for that official notice from Betfair and keep their account details and documents up to date so a withdrawal is not held up. We will add the closure date and procedure once they are published.

For a recent comparison, the exchange Betdaq set out dates and a withdrawal window when it closed: see what happened to Betdaq accounts, bets and balances and the Betdaq closing timetable. We have found no source linking the two exits.

This is not Flutter's first Betfair retreat this autumn: it also closed Betfair in Brazil while keeping Betnacional, though that followed Brazil's betting ban rather than a licensing change. For more on Italy's rules, see AGCOM's consultation on gambling advertising and infotainment sites.

Flutter's statement concerns Italy only. Jamma reports Betfair will continue to operate in its other markets.