Online Gambling in Spain on the Rise: Slots Champion Q3 Increase
Published December 17, 2016 by Ivan P
Online gambling market revenues in Spain continue to grow driven by slots and sports betting, while online poker remains the struggling segment.
The information released by Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), Spanish Gaming regulator, indicate that there's been a remarkable increase in iGaming revenues in the country. According to DGOJ, the total revenue for Q3 amounted to €103, which is 4% more than the last quarter, and 22% year on year growth.
Online Slots a Major Contributor
The report showed that online slots are the biggest "culprit" for the impressive growth of the online casino share of the market. A total revenue share coming from the casinos was €28.4 million, €13.8 million of which was generated by slots. Compared to last year, this is 56.7% increase, confirming the idea to introduce online slots to the local market last year was a good one.
Apart from slots, online roulette was another main contributor, with revenue of €10.6 million. It is interesting to note that live roulette games online have experienced a great increase in popularity, generating almost 50% of the overall roulette revenue.
Sports Betting Showing Positive Trends
Sports betting was another segment of the online gambling market which showed growth. Showing 15% year on year increase, this segment brought total revenues of €56.8 million. In-play betting was by far the most popular among bettors, accounting for more than half of all the revenue.
Online Poker Struggling
While other segments of the market seem to be thriving, online poker is struggling in Spain. Nearly all relevant segments demonstrated significant drops, with the total revenue falling to €13.8 million, which is 4.3% decrease compared to last year.
Average cash game stakes dropped for nearly 10%, leading to decreased revenue from the segment. Online tournaments were the only part where online poker has shown a slight increase of 0.85%.
The biggest reason for the sub-par performance of online poker in Spain is the ring-fenced market, not allowing players from Spain to play against players from other countries. While there are plans in the works which should see Spain join with other ring-fenced markets like Italy and France, the implementation could take a while.
