SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Gross gaming revenue and turnover dropped in the Spanish igaming market in the first quarter of 2013, as Spain’s deep economic crisis continues to engulf all sectors of the country. Gaming Gross revenues €60.84m for the opening three month period of 2013, signifying a a quarter-on-quarter decline of 1%, while igaming turnover declined by 0.7% to €1.37bn . The drop in igaming revenues,coincided with the Spanish government announcing that the economy shrank by 0.5% and unemployment hit 27%.
With Spain having recently fully legalized and opened its doors to regulated igaming within the region, the Spanish regulator La Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) commented that it would be unable to evaluate or compare the results to previous periods, however they mention that the results represent “a stagnation” of the current Spanish online gambling market. Further comments stated that the decline with regards to new player acquisitions may be organic due to the rapid growth and take up of the igaming market in previous years.
Sports betting remained Spains leading igaming vertical, generating 49.7% of all Gross Gaming Revenues and holding 34% of total igaming wagers. Other verticals such as Poker saw a increase of 19.6% in gaming revenues with tournaments’ revenue share growing to 9.9%. Casino and bingo have been most affected by the recent implementation of regulations that have seen slots restricted in the igaming market. Casino gross gaming revenue accounted for 13.8% of the market. Spanish bingo suffered a fall of 22% and the vertical accounts for just 2.9% of total market GGR for the quarter.
The late publication of the results was caused by the recent resignation of DGOJ General Director Enrique Alejo this April, his replacement Carlos Hernandez Riera announced the figures. Industry insiders believe that the downturn was to be expected for the regions igaming performance, due to tough taxation implementation and numerous operators Such as Unibet and Befair leaving the Spanish market
