Partnership since: 2018 | Role: International Presenting Partner | Regions: Europe, Africa, Middle East, Americas | Feature: Geotargeted virtual advertising across all Serie A broadcasts

Most bookmaker sponsorships in football attach to a single club. This one covers an entire league. Since the 2018/19 season, 1xBet has served as the International Presenting Partner of Italy's Serie A — a deal that places 1xBet branding inside every live broadcast of every match, 380 regular-season fixtures per year, plus Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana. The visibility is delivered through geotargeted virtual advertising boards, meaning viewers outside Italy see 1xBet on the LED perimeter displays while Italian audiences see different sponsors (a consequence of the Decreto Dignità, Italy's domestic ban on gambling advertising). It is the longest-running international football partnership in the 1xBet portfolio — predating the FC Barcelona deal by a year and the Paris Saint-Germain agreement by four. For Canadian bettors, that translates into deep Serie A market coverage, league-specific promotions like "In Pursuit of the Scudetto," and the credibility of a bookmaker whose logo appears alongside every Juventus, Inter, Napoli, and AC Milan fixture broadcast globally.

1xBet and Serie A Partnership

How It Started (2017–2018)

The relationship between 1xBet and Italian football has a more complicated origin story than most sponsorships.

In 2017, Serie A signed 1xBet as its International Presenting Partner for the 2017/18 season, covering all markets outside Asia. Within weeks, Italy's gaming regulator — the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) — demanded the deal be suspended. The reason: 1xBet held no Italian licence, and ADM viewed the promotion of an unlicensed operator as incompatible with domestic gambling law, even though the sponsorship was explicitly targeted at international audiences. Serie A pushed back, arguing that 1xBet's lack of a local licence was "of no relevance" since the branding would never appear to Italian viewers. ADM disagreed. The deal was suspended in November 2017.

One year later, it came back — restructured and finalized. In November 2018, 1xBet signed a three-season agreement (2018/19 through 2020/21) as Serie A's International Presenting Partner. The deal was brokered by Interregional Sports Group (ISG), which had held the International Presenting Sponsor rights for the league since the 2015/16 season. ISG joint chairman Simon Burgess said at the time: "We are confident that Serie A will enable 1xBet to boost its brand courtesy of a direct link with its target audience."

The geographic scope covered Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Americas — essentially every major international broadcast region except Asia and Italy itself. That scope remains unchanged today. For an online gambling brand looking to establish credibility in European football, securing a league-level deal — rather than a single-club sponsorship — was a distinctive sports marketing move.

How the Partnership Works

The 1xBet–Serie A deal relies on a technology that most viewers probably take for granted: geotargeted virtual advertising.

During a typical Serie A match, the LED perimeter boards around the pitch display different advertisements to different broadcast feeds simultaneously. If you are watching a Juventus–Inter match in Toronto, you will see 1xBet branding on the virtual boards. A viewer in Milan watching the same match at the same moment will see a different sponsor — likely one compliant with Italy's Decreto Dignità, the 2018 law that banned all gambling advertising within Italian territory starting January 1, 2019.

This system allows Serie A to monetize international betting partnerships without violating domestic regulation. For 1xBet, the arrangement guarantees visibility in every single live broadcast across the covered regions — not just one club's home matches, but all 380 Serie A league fixtures each season. Add in Coppa Italia rounds and the Supercoppa Italiana, and the total volume of branding impressions over a nine-month season is substantial. Serie A generates a combined international broadcast audience in the hundreds of millions, with individual marquee matches (the Derby d'Italia between Juventus and Inter, the Derby della Madonnina between AC Milan and Inter, Roma–Lazio) drawing viewership figures that rival those of the biggest Premier League and La Liga fixtures.

Beyond LED boards, the deal includes 1xBet placement in match graphics, broadcast idents, and virtual goal mat advertising across all live transmissions in covered territories. The league's official YouTube highlights — which carry a "Presented by" tag — also fall within the partnership scope.

Italian License (2024) and Regulatory Shift

In December 2024, something changed that may eventually reshape the entire partnership. The ADM officially listed 1xBet as a licensed sports betting and casino operator in Italy. The operating entity is Cmobet S.r.l., which secured licence code 15471.

This was a significant milestone — it addressed the very objection that had caused the 2017 suspension. After six years of sponsoring Serie A as an international-only partner without an Italian licence, 1xBet now holds one.

The timing coincides with broader regulatory movement in Italy. In February 2025, Italy's Senate Culture Committee began reviewing the Decreto Dignità's betting advertising ban — the same law that forced 1xBet's Serie A branding to remain invisible to Italian viewers. The proposed reform includes a "1% betting allocation" model that would allow licensed gambling operators to advertise within Italian football, with a portion of revenue directed toward stadium development, grassroots facilities, and women's football. Serie A itself estimated that the Decreto Dignità cost the league over €100 million per season in lost sponsorship revenue from its implementation in 2019. If the ban is partially or fully lifted, the 1xBet–Serie A partnership could expand from an international-only arrangement to a domestic one as well — a fundamental shift in both visibility and commercial value.

Partnership Timeline

Serie A — The League

Serie A is one of football's oldest competitions. Founded in its current round-robin format in 1929, the Italian top flight has produced some of the sport's most iconic names: Maradona at Napoli, Van Basten at AC Milan, Baggio at multiple clubs, Del Piero and Buffon at Juventus, Totti's two-decade career at Roma. In the 1990s, Serie A was arguably the strongest league in the world — a period when virtually every top player on the planet either played in Italy or wanted to.

The league's competitiveness dipped in the 2000s and 2010s following the Calciopoli corruption scandal and financial difficulties at several clubs. But the trajectory has reversed. In 2022/23, Inter reached the Champions League final. Atalanta won the Europa League in 2023/24. Roma and Fiorentina contested Conference League finals. Italian clubs reached European semi-finals eight times across two recent seasons. Napoli won the Scudetto in both 2022/23 and 2024/25, with players like Victor Osimhen, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and Lautaro Martínez (at Inter) drawing global attention back to Italian football.

For the 2025/26 season, Serie A operates as Serie A Enilive (domestically, named for title sponsor Enilive, the mobility subsidiary of energy company Eni) and Serie A Made in Italy (internationally). Twenty clubs compete, playing 380 matches from August through May. Napoli are the defending champions. The league's other major sponsors include Puma (official ball), EA Sports FC (gaming partner), Frecciarossa (Coppa Italia title sponsor), Philadelphia (Coach of the Month), Panini (collectibles), and Sorare (NFT/fantasy).

Serie A broadcasts reach over 200 territories worldwide. In Canada, coverage is available through select streaming platforms and satellite packages, making it one of the Big Five European leagues — alongside the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1 — accessible to Canadian football bettors.

1xBet Sponsorship Portfolio

The Serie A deal sits alongside agreements with some of the biggest properties in world football. Where the league deal gives 1xBet breadth (every match, every club), the club deals give depth (closer brand integration with a single team). Together, they form a football sponsorship strategy with few parallels in the betting industry.

Football Leagues & Clubs

Among betting sites that sponsor Serie A and its clubs, 1xBet is the only operator with a league-level international deal. Other bookmakers — Betsson (via StarCasino at AC Milan), Eurobet (Juventus' infotainment partner) — hold individual club sponsorships within Italy, but none have the league-wide virtual advertising reach that the International Presenting Partner role provides.

Other Sports

Esports

1xBet sponsors multiple top-tier esports organizations: ESL (Counter-Strike 2 Majors), Team Spirit (Dota 2 TI champions, 2021), OG Esports (back-to-back TI winners, 2018–2019), MIBR, Tundra Esports, Aurora, and BeastCoast.

What This Partnership Means for Bettors

Serie A Betting Markets

As the league's International Presenting Partner, 1xBet offers what is arguably the deepest Serie A betting product among global bookmakers. The partnership creates both the commercial incentive and the data access to build a more comprehensive Italian football offering than competitors without league-level ties.

On any given Serie A matchday, 1xBet lists the following markets:

Pre-match: 1X2, double chance, draw no bet, total goals (over/under), both teams to score, Asian handicap, correct score, half-time/full-time, first/last goalscorer, cards and corners markets, and match-specific specials. Derby fixtures — Juventus vs. Inter (Derby d'Italia), AC Milan vs. Inter (Derby della Madonnina), Roma vs. Lazio (Derby della Capitale) — typically carry expanded market lists with 200+ individual betting options.

Live betting: In-play markets with real-time odds adjustments. Spreads, totals, next goal, and player props update with every significant match event. Given that Serie A's tactical style often produces late goals and dramatic finishes — Italian teams averaged the most stoppage-time goals in Europe's Big Five during 2023/24 — the in-play product sees significant activity.

Outright futures: Scudetto winner, top scorer (Capocannoniere), top-four finish, relegation, and head-to-head season-long placement markets. With Napoli, Inter, Juventus, AC Milan, and Atalanta all competitive at the top of the table, outright markets tend to remain open and attractively priced deep into the season.

Coppa Italia and Supercoppa: Full match markets for knockout rounds. The Coppa Italia Frecciarossa runs from August through May, providing additional Italian football betting opportunities throughout the season.

In Pursuit of the Scudetto

"In Pursuit of the Scudetto" is a co-branded promotional campaign between 1xBet and Serie A that has run since the 2023/24 season. The promotion is built around a stage-based progression system, making it more engaging than a standard free bet or odds boost:

How it works: Place qualifying bets on Serie A matches (minimum stake $2 equivalent, minimum odds of 2.0 for singles or 1.4 per selection for accumulators). Each qualifying bet — whether it wins or loses — earns promotional tickets. Tickets push you through five competitive divisions, each with its own reward tier.

Prizes: Physical items (smartwatches, iPads, gaming consoles, smartphones) at higher divisions, plus 1xBet promo codes with cash value at every level. Winners are drawn at the end of each stage and listed on the promotion page.

Duration: Runs the entire Serie A season, from August through May, with multiple stages and draws throughout. The promotional structure incentivizes consistent Serie A betting across the full campaign rather than one-off wagers — a fan engagement model that rewards loyalty to Italian football over the course of an entire season.

The "In Pursuit of the Scudetto" branding is visible across 1xBet's social media, the promotions section of the platform, and Serie A-related marketing materials — a direct product of the presenting partner relationship.

Betting on Serie A in Canada

1xBet is accessible to Canadian bettors aged 19 and older in all provinces except Ontario's regulated iGaming market (1xBet does not hold an AGCO licence). The platform operates under a Curaçao Gaming Control Board licence.

What Canadian users get for Serie A:

• Welcome bonus: 120% deposit match up to $1,080 in bonus funds. Wagering requirements range from 5x to 10x through accumulator bets with three or more selections.

• Full season coverage: Pre-match and live betting on all 380 Serie A matches, plus Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana.

• Canadian dollar accounts: Deposits and withdrawals in CAD. No platform-imposed currency conversion fees.

• Payments: Interac, Visa, Mastercard, bank transfers, e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller), Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and 100+ other methods. Deposits typically process instantly; withdrawals take 24–48 hours.

• Live streaming: Select Serie A fixtures available after login. No additional subscription required.

• Mobile: iOS and Android native apps, plus a mobile-responsive browser version.

• "In Pursuit of the Scudetto": Available to registered users globally, including Canada.

Ontario residents should note that the province's regulated market, administered by iGaming Ontario and the AGCO, only permits locally licensed operators. 1xBet is not among them.