The beginning of this year seemed very promising for Spain, especially the first quarter, however, things have slightly changed over the past few months. Even though they’ve experienced the poker vertical’s downfall, the online gambling industry seemed to be headed in a positive direction.
What Do Results Say?
Some reports that were conducted by Spain’s Direccion General de Ordenacion del Juego (DGOJ) have recently been published and according to them, locally licensed online operators earned €193.2m, up 2.14 percent from Q4 2018.
On the other hand, it also showcases a solid 20.1 percent increase during the first quarter of last year. As we mentioned above, this shows that Spain’s regulated online market has been dealing with a decline over the past twelve months.
Furthermore, Q1 growth detects the lowest percentage gain since the 2.3% rise noted in Q2 2018. Still, one thing must be taken into consideration. Back in 2018, the first half of that year held the FIFA World Cup, something this year lacks.
That’s why this important fact should not be neglected when analyzing these statistics. As far as online sports betting is concerned, revenue was moving in a good direction and was up 26.2% year-on-year to €100.8m even though the percentage gain from Q4 2018 was only 0.63%.
What About The Rest?
Furthermore, in-play betting’s share of general betting revenue was up 11.5 percent from Q4 while pre-match revenue was down 11 percent. In terms of betting traffic, it was up 12.6% year-on-year but was 10.5% beneath Q4’s volume, with exchange betting turnover and revenue facing a fall of a staggering 46.2% and 21.6%, year-on-year.
Racing overturn went up for almost one-third year-on-year, while on the other hand, racing revenue didn’t go so well and went down nearly one-third. The online casino vertical witnessed a solid rise (by one fifth) to 67.1m Euros.
Slots revenue is the reason the online casino vertical achieved such great results. Although it is not as popular as other forms of online entertainment, baccarat showcased a huge percentage gain, hitting up almost 1,400% year-on-year, despite turnover rising 31.3%.
Online Poker & Cash Games:
The first one had acceptable results. Namely, its revenue came in at €21.2m, which is actually a downfall of 1.4% year-on-year. On a more positive note, it is also a slight rise in comparison to Q4. Cash games, unfortunately, are the ones to blame for the overall decline.
They fell 5.7% to just under 7.5m Euros, while tournaments turned out to be quite successful and demonstrated an improvement of 5%. Spanish-licensed operators used around €92.2m on promotions only in Q1 which shows a 21.4 % year-on-year rise.
Source: “Spain’s Online Gambling Growth Slowing In 2019” https://calvinayre.com/2019/06/03/business/spain-online-gambling-growth-slowing/. Calvin Ayre. June 4, 2019.
