Paf Expands Into Italy with Winga Purchase

Finnish gambling company Paf Group has made its move into the Italian online gaming market with the purchase of Italian operator Winga. In operation since 2010, Winga offers Italian players online casino, poker and bingo as well as a live roulette TV channel, Winga TV.

Winga Expansion Planned

Based in Milan and powered by Playtech, 2014 has seen Winga generating approximately €10m in revenues. Paf has purchased the operator from worldwide Italian mobile and digital entertainment company Buongiorno, and the operator will now become a subsidiary to Paf Group but will still maintain its original Winga brand.

"The acquisition of Winga is part of our strategy of continued internationalisation and expansion. We see great potential in Winga’s well-established operational base in combination with Paf’s international industry experience and broad range of products," said Paf CEO Anders Ingves on the purchase, adding that Winga will be expanded in the future: "As a first step, we will expand Winga’s product range to include additional casino games and betting in the next few years."

Winga CEO Assen Diakovski said: "It's exciting and challenging to lead Winga into a new era. Our market niche within casino TV in combination with Paf’s international gaming expertise makes me confident that together we can grow the business in Italy over the next few years."

Growth of Foreign Operators in Italy

Italy's online gaming market has witnessed a resurgence throughout 2014 with bigtime operators such as Betfair and bet365 stepping into the picture among others.

According to the eGaming Review there was €1.6b in Italy's betting stakes in 2014, a 23% improvement against the figures of 2013. The increase was helped by the easing of restrictions by Italy's regulator back in October, which also helped spawn an impressive €188m figure in December – a 65% improvement from December 2013.