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Spain Records a 12.5% Increase in iGaming Revenue for Q1 2020
By Jeff Osienya Jul 14, 2020 IndustrySpain’s online gambling industry made a killing in Q1 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the gaming world upside-down. There was also a significant marketing expenditure by operators, but this could change due to proposed regulations.The Spanish online gambling market has reported impressive double-digit revenue growth in Q1 2020 after a significant upsurge in activity across all market verticals, from sports betting to poker, bingo, and other forms of iGaming. The numbers for the first quarter of 2020 were released on Friday by the state’s gaming regulatory body, the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ).
According to the DGOJ report, licensed online gaming operators in Spain raked in nearly €218 million between 1st January and 31st March in 2020, which is 12.5% higher than what the country reported for the same period last year. Better yet, the Q1 2020 figures were up 17% from Q4 2019. Players on the other hand parted with about €4.80 billion in the form of wagers, a figure that’s 3.6 higher than the same period in 2019.
The volume of online bettors in Spain grew steadily, with 289,340 new registrations for online casino and sportsbook accounts being recorded, which is 5.6% more year-over-year. The number of active online gamers on the other hand stood at 911,218 by 31st March.
Online Sports Betting Taking a Strong Lead
As expected, online sports betting contributed the lion’s share of the revenue among all gaming verticals, bringing in €110.6 million, which is 50.8% of the quarterly revenue, and 8.7% more than what was accrued in Q1 2019 and about 25% higher than Q4 2019.
Looking into how sports betting markets available in Spanish online sportsbooks faired against each other, fixed-odds betting continues to be the most popular option. Pre-match bets recorded a 13.1% growth over the same period with €46.3 million in revenue, even though the turnover fell by 10%.
Coming in second under the most popular sports betting market category was the in-play betting or rather live betting. Interestingly, however, while pre-match bets were more popular with Spanish online bettors, the in-play bets brought in more revenue, recording a cool €61.3 million, 4% more compared to last year despite an 18.5% drop in the turnover.
Online Casino and Poker Gaming Also Recorded Positive to Growth
Revenue amassed from online casinos went up by 8.3% compared to Q1 2019, at €77.6 million owing to a momentous upward trend in revenue from Online Slots that garnered €43.2 million, after a 15.7% increase year-on-year. live roulette followed with revenue of €18.4 million after experiencing a massive 35.6% growth from the same period in 2019. The third mover of the casino vertical was traditional online roulette with €10.7 million in proceeds, after getting 16.7% more compared to last year.
Blackjack income on the other hand recorded a 17.1% dip year-on-year, to pull in €5.3 million in whereas Baccarat took a monstrous hit, tumbling by nearly 80% to record a revenue of only €614,000!
DGOJ’s report also disclosed some remarkable poker numbers after the activity shot up by 13.1% to fetch an income of €24.2 million in comparison to the first quarter of 2019. Tournaments were the biggest movers for growth under the poker product after recording a 16% improvement to rack up revenue of €16.1 million, with the pandemic lockdown playing a huge role in the increase. Poker cash games didn’t disappoint either as they also experienced a tangible 7.9% growth to secure an income stream of €8.1 million. On top of that, tournament fees and cash game stakes reported weighty year-on-year growth by 30.7% and 22.8% respectively.
Other less significant contributors such as bingo also brought in €3.7 in proceeds after undergoing a 14.7% surge, while the contests category doubled in growth compared to last year, thereby yielding €1.9 million.
Spanish iGaming Marketing Expenditure
The Q1 2020 marketing expenditure for licensed operators in Spain’s online gaming expanse also rose to €118.2 million after a 28.3% increase from the first quarter of last year. Advertisement expenses went up by close to 25% to €59.9 million whereas the bonus promotions expenditure hit a €42.4 million high after a 46% jump.
For affiliate marketing, gaming companies in Spain spent 1% more year-on-year, to part with a total of €10.1 million while €6 million was spent on sponsorships after a 23% increase compared to Q1 2019.
However, in the coming quarters, the marketing expenditure by operators may end up being drastically lower, should the planned gambling advertising restrictions that started with the pandemic come into effect.
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