Q4 Figures Reveal Strong Close in Spain for 2017

Spain closed 2017 with a bang across all major verticals in Q3.

The Figures

Spanish gaming regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) reported revenues generated by Spanish-licensed online operators in Q3 at €173.3m for a 38% improvement year-on-year closing over 23.5% higher than Q3 2017.

Customer Base Grows

Patronage improved almost 12% year-on-year, with active customer ranks surpassing 676k and customer deposits vaulting 53.2% to €495.5m.

More Remarkable Considering...

These gains came in the wake of cuts on advertising by operators Q4, who reduced their advertising investment by 1.4% to €31.3m. Other budgetary impacts for the quarter included bonus offers to customers increasing 13.1% year-on-year to €21m; affiliate marketing expenses increasing 38.6% to €7.5m and sponsorship expenses more than doubling to €3.15m.

Vertical Performances

As for verticals, casino spending reached €1.77b in Q4 for a whopping year-on-year improvement of just under 48%, achieving for the vertical a 49.9% share of overall turnover. Meanwhile, sports betting came in second among online verticals in Spain at €1.34b, with a 5.2% year-on-year jump gave it a 37.7% share.

Overall Revenues

As far as overall revenue, sports betting remained king with a €103.6m take for a 48.5% year-on-year gain. At the same time, casino revenue reached €49.4m for a solid 37.4% improvement.

The Live Factor

Live betting provided a major contribution to Q4 sports betting turnover of 68.4%, good for 51% of betting revenue. Live and conventional roulette proved the dominant casino product for Q4, comprising 45.8% of overall spending and 35.4% of revenue. Coming in second on the casino spending chart for Q4 in Spain was slots at 39.5%, which accounted for 52% of casino revenue.

Poker Contributes

As far as total online poker spending, the figure of €411.6m was good for a 15.5% improvement with poker revenue up 5% to €15.5m. These gains are attributable to a jump in tournament fees to 2.2%, even as cash game stakes dropped 2.6% year-on-year.

Major Development Moving Forward

A huge area of improvement very near on the horizon is horizon is the comeback of cash game contributions on the heels of the launch of shared liquidity between Spain with France’s regulated market.

Outlook

With growth falling in line with the new regulation models, the prospect of more countries joining the shared liquidity pools such as newly minted Portugal and incoming Italy suggests that there may be no better time to get licensed in Spain than now.