Online gambling growth has slowed in Spain

Despite the poker vertical’s decline, Spain’s online gambling market experienced a fair-sized growth over the first quarter of 2019, with the market expanding by more than one-fifth.

 

The figure were released on Monday by Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) regulatory body. And the figures show that locally licensed online operators witnessed a modest increase of 21.4%, up from Q4 of 2018. Furthermore it has seen an increase in 20.1% over the first quarter of 2018.

 

Over the past year, Spain’s regulated online market has experienced a slow grown, one that has begin to cause some concern. The Q1 growth figures markes the lowest growth percentage since a 2.3% increase was recorded in Q2 in 2018. It’s important to know that this quarter featured the first part of the 2018 World Cup, a factor that the first quarter of 2019 was not able to replicate.

 

In actual fact, online sports betting revenue was up 26.2% year on year but that amounted to only 0.63% in Q4 of 2018. Furthermore, the share of in-play betting revenue was up 11.5% from the Q4, whilst pre-match revenue was down by 11%.

 

The betting turnover was up 12.6% year on year, but remained 10/5% below the Q4’s volume. Additionally, exchange betting turnover and revenue fell by a massive 46.2% and 21.6% respectively. Whilst racing turnover was up nearly one third year on year, racing turnover was down to nearly one-third.

 

The online casino vertical also experienced an increase in its revenue, with it rising by one-fifth. This increase was largely thanks to a 29.2% spike in slots revenue. Unfortunately, this still remains a relatively small chunk of the gambling pie. However, the largest percentage gain was posted by baccarat . It experienced a massive increase of nearly 1400% year on year.

 

Online poker revenue experienced the worst results, seeing itself fall by 1.4% year on year, despite being up by 2.7% from Q4. Whilst tournaments improved by 5%, the fall was mostly a consequence of cash games, which recorded a fall of 5.7%.

 

In total and combined, the Spanish-licensed operators spent €92.2m on marketing efforts in Q1, an increase in 21.4% year on year. Although it was down from Q4, there was also an increase in advertising spend, with an extra 16.1% being spent on it.