Spain's iGaming Market Receives Boost From Online Slots

Spain introduced legal gambling legislation back in 1977, and currently the country has forty land-based casinos established across its regions and major cities. In 2011, the country’s betting landscape subsequently received an overhaul with the introduction of the Spanish Gambling Act, whose main purpose was to help harmonize and regulate online gambling activities in the country of 47 million people.
Although gambling expansion has been slow, in the summer of 2015 Spanish legislators finally approved the addition of online slots to its gambling mix, with 29 slots licenses having now been handed out. Without a doubt, slots have always been a major contributor to an operator’s profits, both live and online, and online slots in Spain have already yielded impressive results. According to the country’s regulator, DGOJ, the online gambling market generated €84.2 in revenues in Q3 2015, of which €18.1 million was accounted for by online slots.
Needless to say, this 114% gain in online casino revenues shows the enduring popularity of slots, and the necessity of its inclusion in any well-rounded casino offering. Nevertheless, slots still lag considerably behind sports betting, which in Q3 generated 46% more revenues at €49.4 million, or 58.7% of overall iGambling revenues. At the other extremity, bingo revenues came in at €1.8 million in Q3, a 12% fall year-over-year.
In the meantime, online poker may have generated €14.4 million in revenues, but that figure was still 16% down on the same period of time in 2014. Furthermore, while tournament revenues fell by 7% to €7.35 million, the decline was even more pronounced for cash games which plummeted 24% to €7 million in Q3.
Finally, improved gambling revenues have been assisted by the increased marketing activities of operators, with bonus offers higher by almost 200% in Q3, and “advertising, sponsorship and promotion” spending soaring by 42% to €18 million. This situation may change, however, if the government decides to make good on its proposal to restrict the ability of operators to market their products through television advertising, or via sports team sponsorship deals.