The sport system in Italy is worth €95.9 billion, namely 3.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and employs 389,000 people, according to a recent report by Banca Ifis. The study, presented on March 30 at the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in Rome, represents the first edition of what will become an annual document on the Italian sport system in response to the European Union’s request to report regularly on this sector.
Italy has around 15.5 million adults practicing a sport regularly, 74,000 clubs and sports facility management companies, and 10,000 manufacturers, according to Banca Ifis’ data. The bank has developed the Observatory on the Italian Sport System, which will be active 365 days a year, to measure and provide data on the economic impact of all the components of sport for use by public and private decision-makers. The report’s first edition took 2019 as an average year of reference.
The “Sport System,” as defined for the purposes of the report, comprises manufacturers of clothing, equipment and sports vehicles; professional and amateur clubs and management of sports facilities; sports media, expenses connected to events and betting; and social value, measuring sport’s impact in creating an indirect economic value, influencing health and safety, and involving youngsters in school and work. With 59 percent of the sector’s total workforce, sports clubs and companies that run sports facilities represent the main component of Italy’s sport system. As for the manufacturers of clothing, equipment and sports vehicles, this segment employed 161,000 people in around 10,000 companies in 2019 and generated revenues of €17.3 billion, namely 18 percent of the revenues of Italy’s entire sport system and 0.47 percent of the country’s GDP.
The full report (in Italian) can be downloaded via the Banca Ifis website.
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