Spain’s Gambling Market on the Rise, Say the Latest Figures

Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) has recently published a report that revealed betting was the main driving force behind growth in the Spanish gambling market.

According to available information, the country’s gambling market recorded €181.7 million in gross gaming revenue during the third quarter of 2018, which represents a solid 30% increase when compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Numbers Going up

The biggest portion of revenue comes from bets (€97.6 million), followed by casino (€60.8 million), poker (€19.8 million), bingo (€3.1 million) and contests (€320,000).

The sports betting vertical also went up – by nearly a third (27%), making the biggest contribution to Q3 gaming revenue.

When it comes to marketing spending, it reached €75.8 million during the quarter, which is 56% more than in the same quarter of 2017. €36.3 million went on advertising, €28.5m on promotions, €7.4m on affiliates and €3.5m on sponsorship, while costs of advertising increased by 92%.

Expenses were down by 7% from the previous quarter, mostly due to the fact advertising investment dropped by 11%.

The number of monthly average users jumped by 31% to 812,007, while the number of new registrations slightly decreased by 2% to 232,012 users.

Online casino vertical generated €60.8 million in revenue, which represents a year-on-year increase of 39%.

Further Expansion Expected

The Spanish market is inviting for operators, especially due to the 5% break adopted by the Parliament earlier this year. At this moment, there are 52 licensed operators doing business in Spain – 38 offering their services in the casino vertical, 29 in sports betting, 9 in poker, 6 in bingo, and 1 offering contests.

Spain is regarded as one of Europe’s smaller markets, which can be seen in the advertising spend figures. For example, the UK market has spent approximately £1.5 billion since 2015, while the biggest portion of that sum was invested in online vertical.

These figures were released following bet365‘s deal with 10 clubs from the Spanish La Liga, which was signed before the ongoing season kicked-off.

As online gaming expands in Spain, the biggest concerns include protecting the youth and vulnerable, while many are calling for tighter regulation of advertising.