DraftKings Italy is a short answer wearing a long explanation. Italy runs one of Europe's oldest regulated gambling markets — a concession system controlled by the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli, in place in some form since the 1990s — and DraftKings has never held one of those concessions or offered any product to anyone physically in the country. Even in a hypothetical world where that changed tomorrow, a separate Italian law would stop DraftKings from telling anyone about it.
Is DraftKings Legal in Italy? What an ADM Concession Requires
Italy licenses every form of legal gambling — retail betting shops, online sportsbooks, online casino, daily fantasy sports — through state concessions issued by ADM. Running a gambling product reachable from Italy without one isn't a gray area; it's a criminal offense under Italian law. Italy is also mid-overhaul of that system right now: a 2024 reorganization decree scrapped the old concession framework, and by late 2025 ADM had cleared 46 operators — names like Snai, Sisal, Lottomatica, Eurobet, Planetwin365, bet365, and Betfair among them — to move into new nine-year concessions covering 2026 through 2035, with the reformed platforms going live by March 2026 under a new technical standard called Sports Betting Protocol 5.0. DraftKings is not one of the 46, and has never held an ADM concession of any kind.
Italy also taxes what it licenses. Online sports betting carries a 24.5% tax on gross gaming revenue under the new regime, retail betting a bit less at 20.5%. That's the financial side of a concession — one more reason an unlicensed operator isn't just skipping paperwork, it's skipping a real fiscal relationship with the Italian state.
Did DraftKings Ever Run Fantasy Sports in Italy?
No — and this is where Italy diverges from a few of its European neighbors on this site. DraftKings pushed its DFS business into Europe in 2017 under a Malta Gaming Authority license, launching contests in Germany, Ireland, and Austria to sit alongside a UK product it already ran. Italy, despite having a legally recognized DFS category and a betting culture built around Serie A, was never part of that wave. DraftKings has never explained the omission publicly. There is no Italian exit story to tell, because there was never an Italian entry.
Why the Ad Ban Matters Even If Licensing Ever Changed
Since January 2019, Italy's Decreto Dignità has banned nearly all gambling advertising and sponsorship — stadium boards, shirt deals, broadcast promotion, celebrity endorsement, any communication with promotional content about betting or gaming. Penalties run up to 20% of a sponsorship's value or €50,000, whichever is higher. That law binds Italy's own ADM-licensed operators today; Snai and Sisal can hold a concession and still can't buy a stadium banner. An unlicensed foreign brand has zero legal marketing channel into Italy on top of having zero license — the ad ban would apply the moment DraftKings tried to announce anything here, licensed or not.
Is DraftKings Legit? Yes — Just Not an Italian Operator
Away from the Italy question, DraftKings' credentials hold up: Nasdaq-listed (DKNG), audited public financials, a state-licensed sportsbook across roughly 27 US states plus D.C., and a genuine, if limited, European DFS licensing history in Germany, Ireland, Austria, and the UK before that business closed down. None of that converts into standing in Italy. A company can be entirely legitimate everywhere it actually operates and still have no legal product for a market it has simply never entered.
Why the Sportsbook Site Still Lists Serie A and Serie B Odds
Search "DraftKings Italy" and DraftKings Sportsbook pages pricing Serie A and Serie B matches turn up right away, which reads like an Italian product. It isn't. Those are betting markets for DraftKings' US customers wagering on Italian football, priced the same way the site prices Bundesliga or Premier League games. A bettor in a licensed US state can wager on Juventus or Inter; a resident of Italy looking at that same page still has no account to open.
How Safe Is a Workaround?
Not safe, and not simple. DraftKings geofences its live sportsbook and casino to licensed US states and Ontario, and its terms of service explicitly prohibit spoofing a device's location to get around that. Italy adds a second layer on top: ADM has required Italian ISPs to block unauthorized gambling domains since 2006, one of the longest-running blacklist systems in Europe. Reaching DraftKings from Italy means working around both barriers at once, with no ADM oversight and no DraftKings terms-of-service protection if a deposit or payout goes wrong.
What's Actually Legal in Italy
Italy has a mature, ADM-licensed market — Snai, Sisal, Lottomatica, Eurobet, Planetwin365, bet365, Betfair, William Hill, AdmiralBet, and Marathonbet among the names moving into the new 2026–2035 concession round. That's the real, legal, tax-paying answer for someone in Italy who wants to bet online in 2026 — not a US brand with Serie A odds on its site and no concession to its name. Betting should stay entertainment, never a plan for income. 18+.