Spanish Gambling Sector Starts Off Strong in 2021

Of late, most of the iGaming news has focused on the massive success story that online gambling in the US has proven to be.

However, there are much smaller and less boisterous markets that are promoting safer gambling standards, managing their revenues vs risk during the pandemic, and proving to be strong value adds to their local economies.

One such unassuming market which is proving to be a mainstay of its local economy is the Spanish regulated gambling sector.

 Humble But Mighty

Overall, the Spanish economy was hard hit over the course of the pandemic with 2020 showing a troubling 10.8% contraction. However, as life began to find its balance in 2021 analysts were positive about the growth of the market predicting an increase of 5.5%.

Thanks to the way in which the government handled the situation, protecting the economy through support programs and encouraging reinvestment in local enterprise its actual correction is far stronger than expected with projections pointing at upwards of 6.2% by the end of the year.

This strengthening of the Spanish economy and people’s ability to budget for entertainment is also evident in the first quarter results of the country’s gambling industry. The gross gaming revenue (GGR) for Spain in the first quarter came in at €240 million which is a healthy 3.8% increase over the Q4 2020, and a massive 10.19% increase over the Q1 2020 results.

The 3.8% increase in player revenue quarter-on-quarter does align with the increase in new player accounts over the same period. With new player registrations seeing an increase to 7.92% reaching a new monthly average of 422,533 accounts.

Marketing and advertising costs in Spain were down by -1.74% in Q1 2021 compared to Q4 2020 proving the impact of maintaining public awareness during quieter months to be top of mind when they do have entertainment budget available.

 Bets and Spins Rule the Day

Whenever there are notable increases and decreases in a country’s gambling sector it is always worth delving into the specific gambling categories to understand which markets are attracting players and where interest or perhaps just access has waned.

The Spanish Directorate-General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGR) was kind enough to provide us with a clear understanding of where its citizens like to spend their time and money:

• Casino: Contributed €99.5 million towards Q1 2021 GGR which represents a quarterly growth of 1.71% and an annual growth of 28.31%.
• Betting: Contributed €110.3 million towards Q1 2021 GGR which represents a quarterly growth of 6.52% but a -0.25% decline compared to the same period in 2020.
• Poker: Contributed € 24.9 million towards Q1 2021 GGR which represents a quarterly growth of 0.04% and an annual growth of 3.1%.

The fact that these three products alone, represent nearly 98% of Spain’s total GGR for the year to date makes sense when you consider their representation in the market. Out of the 109 licensed vendors who gambling in Spain, 51 operate casinos, 44 operate betting rooms and 9 run poker rooms which is 95% of all available gambling.