The Italian betting and gaming service provider Microgame has signed a partnership agreement with Global Betting Exchange, a B2B betting exchange technology provider, to introduce exchange betting to the Italian market.
The deal follows the January 16th announcement by Italian authorities that exchange betting will be legalised in Italy later this year.
Italian company Betlab will deliver technical and commercial support to the partnership.
Microgame and GBE have been working towards the launch of an Italian betting exchange for three years. Microgame, as the market leading service provider in Italy, operates the People’s Network through 160 licensed online partners and has more than 2 million online gaming accounts, and will introduce exchange betting as an additional product, integrated with and its existing offerings.
The service, to be called the People’s Ibex, will provide a platform where Italian punters, traders, speculators and bookmakers can all participate for collective benefit.
Global Betting Exchange operates a network of broker exchanges that feed liquidity into a central platform for the benefit of users around the world.
The first GBE broker, Betdaq, has the benefit of more than 10 years’ experience operating in the well-developed UK betting exchange market. The GBE platform comes with an established liquidity pool matching more than 50 million sports bets to a total value of more than Euro 8.5 billion each year.
“Microgame has chosen today’s best technological partner in the world, in order to introduce this revolutionary product and bring the Italian betting market into a brand new era,” said Microgame founder and CEO, Fabrizio D’Aloia.
“It is important to underline that People’s Ibex does not have to be considered as a competitor for the traditional Italian bookmakers, but on the contrary as a great alternative for themselves to diversify their business. The betting exchange represents an additional offer for our clients, inside their current portfolio together with poker, casino games and bingo.”