Spain’s online gambling revenue up nearly 23%

Sports betting revenue was up 12.3% year-on-year to €60.1 m, while the casino vertical reported revenue of €42.9m, up 52.5%. Slots revenue soared 84% year-on-year to €21.5m, with live roulette gained nearly two-thirds to €9.5m while RNG roulette improved 11.5% to €6.8m and blackjack rose 10.2% to just under €5m.

Online poker was also in the black, as revenue rose nearly 5% year-on-year to €14.4m, although this was down nearly 5% from 2017 first quarter.

Hope remains high that Spanish poker’s cash game salvation awaits in the long-awaited deal to share online poker liquidity with licensed operators in the regulated markets of France, Italy and Portugal. French regulator ARJEL got the ball rolling this week by inviting its poker licensees to submit applications for liquidity sharing but the DGOJ has yet to issue a similar call to poker arms.

The overall number of active online gambling users in first quarter of 2017 was over 646,000, an increase of 7% year-on-year. Spanish gaming operators spent €25m marketing their wares during the quarter, down nearly 16% year-on-year, while bonus offers decreased 14% to €21.2m.