The Spanish online gambling market has shown robust growth in the first quarter of 2024, as reported by the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ). The Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) for the quarter reached €350.69 million, marking an 11.23% increase quarter-over-quarter and a 15.14% increase year-over-year. This significant rise underscores the market’s resilience and recovery from previous fluctuations.
Growth Across Key Segments
In terms of player transactions, both deposits and withdrawals showed notable increases compared to the previous year, rising by 15.85% and 13.90%, respectively. Quarter-over-quarter, deposits grew by 5.61% while withdrawals saw a modest increase of 0.72%. Despite the overall growth, marketing expenditure saw a slight decrease of 1.0% quarter-over-quarter, while the number of new accounts surged by 15.21%.
The GGR is distributed across various gaming segments, with betting, casino, bingo, contests, and poker all contributing to the total. Betting accounted for €150.28 million (42.85% of the total GGR), followed by the casino segment with €167.76 million (47.84%). Bingo contributed €4.19 million (1.19%), contests €0.002 million (0.00%), and poker €28.45 million (8.11%).
Betting and Casino Drive Growth
The betting segment experienced a significant positive variation rate of 30.99% quarter-over-quarter and 15.37% year-over-year. This growth was largely driven by a remarkable 588.84% increase in pre-match betting, although in-play sports betting saw a decline of 31.69%. Other betting categories also grew by 1.57% this quarter, whereas horse betting decreased by 28.36%.
The casino segment, despite a slight quarter-over-quarter decline of 2.05%, showed a strong annual growth rate of 17.02%. Within the casino segment, slots increased by 14.98% year-over-year, and live roulette saw an impressive 22.19% growth. Quarter-over-quarter, Blackjack, conventional roulette, and live roulette grew by 7.32%, 9.69%, and 6.37%, respectively, while slots fell by 7.51%.
Other Segments Show Mixed Results
Bingo showed steady growth, with a 9.18% increase quarter-over-quarter and 24.93% year-over-year. Conversely, the contests segment continued its irregular performance, experiencing a dramatic fall of 96.79% quarter-over-quarter and 99.38% year-over-year.
Poker presented a positive outlook with an 11.98% quarter-over-quarter increase and a 3.99% year-over-year rise. Poker tournaments grew by 11.19% quarter-over-quarter and 2.04% year-over-year, while poker cash games increased by 13.91% compared to the previous quarter and 8.91% compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Player Engagement and Market Dynamics
The average number of active game accounts per month reached 1,327,575, reflecting a 4.57% increase quarter-over-quarter and a 14.58% increase year-over-year. The average number of new game accounts per month stood at 148,862, with a growth of 15.21% quarter-over-quarter and 33.64% year-over-year.
For this quarter, there were 78 licensed operators in the market. The number of active operators by segment included 41 for betting, 4 for bingo, 50 for casino, 2 for contests, and 9 for poker.
Marketing Expenses
Marketing expenses for the last quarter totaled €112.79 million, broken down into €14.27 million for affiliation expenses, €1.07 million for sponsorship, €55.67 million for promotions, and €41.78 million for advertising. Compared to the previous quarter, marketing expenses declined by 1.00% but increased by 14.86% year-over-year. Specifically, sponsorship decreased by 12.55%, affiliates by 0.87%, advertising by 7.68%, while promotions increased by 4.93% quarter-over-quarter. Year-over-year, sponsorship fell by 27.23%, affiliates increased by 14.82%, advertising by 22.49%, and promotions by 10.92%.
Source: “1st Quarterly Report 2024”. Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling. June 4, 2024.