Spain: Casino closes gap as online gambling revenues pass €850m

The online gambling market in Spain generated €850.7m in 2020, an increase of 13.7% on the previous year, as casino almost completely closed the gap on sports betting in the battle for largest market share.

As revealed in the ‘Spain Betting Focus‘ report published by BtoBet, sports betting still came out with the highest gross gaming revenue (GGR), with a total of €365.14m or 42.92% share, but this represented a 3.48% year on year (YoY) decrease.

This was largely as a result of in-play sports betting and pre-match sports betting suffering 4.57% and 2.66% drops respectively due to the impact of Covid-19 on the sporting calendar.

Casino, meanwhile, recorded a 28.39% YoY surge to €350.8m in GGR, or 41.23% share of the market. This continued a growth trend for the sector dominated by roulette and slots (combined for €10.5bn of €11.6 total vertical turnover), boosted by operators putting more resources into cross-selling activities to re-engage their sports punters.

Slots grew by 21.49% from 2019 reaching €5.182bn in turnover, while live roulette accounted for the bulk of the remaining roulette share, with a huge 42.7% increase to €4.153bn in turnover.

As the popularity of online gambling increased in Spain, issues around player protection came to the fore, resulting in the new Royal Decree being approved by the Council of Ministers in Spain.

The new Royal Decree contains stricter rules for gambling advertising on TV, radio and social media, aimed at reducing gambling-related harm and decreasing the exposure of the younger population to gambling content.

As part of the report, BtoBet pointed to its own set of tools – based on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) – which allow its operator partners to take a more personalised approach to engaging players against traditional advertising.

Through in-depth data analytics based on various elements such as player betting behaviour, betting preferences, amount deposited and staked, these operators can recommend bets based on individual preferences or other trending events.

For more data on the Spanish gambling market and information on BtoBet tools for increasing player engagement, you can read the report in full HERE.