Spain records 15% GGR growth in Q1 as revenue surpasses €350m mark
Pre-match sports betting volumes soar almost six-fold compared to Q4, while casino revenue jumps 17% year on year
Spain has reported a 15.1% year-on-year (YoY) increase in gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first three months of 2024, amounting to €350.7m.
The performance announced by the nation’s regulator, the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), revealed the country also generated a quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) rise in revenue of 11.2%.
Breaking GGR down by vertical, casino represented the largest sector, with €167.8m, representing 47.8% of Spain’s total GGR to the end of March.
That marked a 17% YoY rise, though revenue for the vertical fell 2.1% in comparison with the previous quarter.
That aforementioned casino growth was helped largely in part by a 15% YoY rise in slots revenue, though slots revenue fell 7.6% against the final quarter of last year. Spain also posted a 22% YoY increase in roulette revenue.
As for sports betting, GGR among licensed operators came in at €150.2m.
There was a staggering increase of 589% in the amount of pre-match bets wagered compared to the last quarter of 2023, but in-play betting decreased 31.7%, while horse betting also fell by 28.4%, QoQ.
Poker revenue was up 4% YoY to €28.5m, while bingo revenue increased 24.9% on the corresponding period last year to €4.2m.
Across all customers playing with licensed firms in the market, the regulator pointed to a notable increase in both deposits and withdrawals.
Deposits rose 15.9% YoY to land at €1.1bn, and withdrawals climbed 13.9% compared to Q1 2023 to €740m.
The total of monthly average active accounts was recorded at 1.3 million, an increase of 14.6% YoY and a QoQ rise of 4.6%.
In terms of new accounts, that metric also saw growth, with a 33.6% YoY increase to 148,862.
Marketing expenditure rose 14.9% YoY to a total of €112.8m, made up of €55.7m on promotions, €41.8m on advertising, €14.3m on affiliates and €1.1m on sponsorship. Compared to last quarter, total marketing spend slipped 1%.
Currently, the Spanish regulated market is made up of 78 licensed operators, with 41 holding sports betting licences and 50 for casino.
The quarterly performance from the Iberian markets comes after Spain’s Supreme Court agreed to annul certain advertising restrictions in April.