In the first half 2015, the Italian GDP was slightly up 0.4%1 compared to the same period of last year. The Italian gaming market turnover inverted the 2014 trend, growing, based on our estimates, by 2.8%, to approximately €43.0 billion.
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Total Convenience Payments Services market confirmed the ongoing positive trend. Services turnover grew by 12.5%, reaching €51.4 billion, mainly driven by the expansion of payment and financial services. The Group recorded €7.5 billion turnover for the six months ended June 30, 2015, an increase of 8.9% compared to the same period in 2014, mainly driven by Payments and Services performance.
The first half 2015 results were also affected by the Budget Law 2015, which provides a reduction of the fees paid to gaming machines concessionaires for the concession activities, amounting to a total of €500 million and to be divided between the concessionaires according to the number of gaming machine rights held in their names on December 30 2014.
Sisal Group share amounts to Euros 45.8 million, payable in two installments end of April (already timely processed) and end of October. Sisal Group renegotiated its agreements with gaming network operators, in order to charge back to them a proportion of the fees reduction. We estimate that about 40% of the total amount will remain payable by Sisal Group. The first half 2014 results reflect a positive tax ruling by the Central Office of the Revenues Agency which confirmed the full deductibility for IRES and IRAP corporate tax purposes of the charges incurred in 2013 fiscal year, related to the settlement with the Court of Auditors of the so called Slot case, totalling for the Group €73.5 million. The non recurring effect of the above mentioned ruling has been reported in the first half 2014 resulting in a positive Income tax of €22.9 million.
Revenues and income amounted to €374.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 a decrease of €29.7 million, or 7.3%, from €404.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, due in particular to a soft performance of fixed odds sport betting income and the impact of the Budget Law 2015 on Gaming machines revenues, partially offset by the positive Payments and other services revenues performance. The overall gaming revenues amounted to €222.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 a decrease of €27.4 million, or 11.0%, from €249.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, due to a combination of the following factors: Gaming machines revenues amounted to €168.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 a decrease of €27.6 million, or 14.1%, from €195.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014.
The decrease in gaming machines revenue is mainly due to the already mentioned Budget Law 2015 impact. Furthermore, total gaming machines turnover decreased from €2.0 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2014, of which 59% related to slot machines and 41% related to VLTs to €1.9 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2015, of which 57% related to slot machines and 43% related to VLTs. The decrease in turnover is exclusively attributable to an optimization project which implied the pull out of the underperforming slot machines.
NTNG revenues amounted to €20.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 a decrease of €2.6 million, or 11.5%, from €22.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014. The decrease in NTNG revenues is mainly related to soft turnover driven by both low average jackpots and delays in refreshing the product offering. Virtual Races revenues amounted to €15.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, an increase of €1.2 million, or 8.1%, from €14.3 million for the six months related to June 30, 2014. This product, launched in December 2013, still confirm a very successful trend.
Online game revenues amounted to €12.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 an increase of €1.8 million, or 16.9%, from €10.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, primarily as a result of the successful performance of Slot and other Casino and Skill games, partially offset by Poker games weak market trend.
Horse race betting revenues were substantially unchanged amounting to €5.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 and €5.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014. Bingo revenues amounted to €0.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 a decrease of €0.3 million, or 36.3%, from €0.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, due to a weak market trend. Sports pools revenues were substantially unchanged amounting to €0.4 million for both the six months ended June 30, 2015 and June 30, 2014.
Fixed odds betting income amounted to €44.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2015 a decrease of €8.4 million, or 15.9%, from €52.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, primarily as a result of lower performance in sport betting compared to the extraordinary performance in the same period of 2014.
Retail Gaming segment results for the six months ended June 30, 2015 have been mainly driven by the soft performance in sport betting and by the 2015 Budget Law impact. 14.6% margin for the six months ended June 30, 2015 compared to 16.3% for same period in 2014. Lottery segment results for the six months ended June 30, 2015 have been mainly driven by low SuperEnalotto jackpot during the period, reducing game appeal to customers and delay in approving games rejuvenation. 38.5% margin
for the six months ended June 30, 2015, compared to 35.6% for the same period in 2014, is mainly related to lower costs base.
Online Gaming segment results for the six months ended June 30, 2015 have been mainly driven by Slot games strong performance, partially offset by soft performance in online sport betting and the Poker market weak trend. 45.3% margin for the six months ended June 30, 2015 compared to 43.6% for the same period in 2014, was mainly driven
by the above mentioned factors.