Spain’s Online Gambling Growth Slowed in 2018

During the Q4 of 2018, the growth of the Spanish online gambling marked a surprising slow down.

Spain’s regulatory body or Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), released a statement saying that online operators had the revenue of €189.5 million during the last three months of 2018.

It was a 4.2% rise comparing to the numbers from the Q3…

…as well as the 10.7% rise in comparison to the same period during 2017.

The Revenue

Sports betting brought an amazing €100 million in revenue during Q4, but this form of gambling saw just a 2.3% growth, while it had a negative year-on-year growth of 2.1%.

Looking at 2018, sports betting brought €365 million in revenue, and that is a good 18.1% improvement.

When it comes to online casino revenue, in Q4 it went up to a staggering €64.8 million…

…which is a 6.4% growth comparing to the revenue in Q3 (and around one-third year-on-year improvement).

In all of 2018, casino revenue improved by 39%, and the numbers showed an amazing gain of €238 million in revenue.

Customers and Operators

During Q4 of 2018, the number of active customers grew 5.7% and hit a staggering number of 858.000. There were also 256.000 new customers which represents a 10.4% rise and 27.6% year-on-year rise.

Overall revenue from licensed operators in 2018 grew 25.5% to a whopping €699 million…

…even though it was a slower growth compared to 30.8% in 2017 and 34.4% in 2016.

Changing the Tax Law

In June 2018, Spanish authorities decided to cut down revenue tax rates for online gambling from 25% to 20%. The government worked on an annual budget breakdown and decided to cut down the taxes on fixed-odds and sports betting…

…as well as horse race betting, online table games, bingo, and poker.

Cutting Tax Rate in Half

Spanish autonomous cities Melilla and Ceuta, situated on the North of Africa, want to attract companies to move their offices there…

…by offering a 10% tax rate on gambling revenue, which is half the rate the government is charging on the Spanish mainland.

So, although Spain cut down taxes for 5%, the country’s autonomous cities decided to cut them even more.

Gambling in Spain

In Spain’s e-commerce transaction report for Q2 of 2018 and according to Spain’s National Commission of Markets and Competition…

…gambling ranked second on the list.

Gambling transactions represent 7% of Spain’s total e-commerce transaction volume and if we are looking at overall transaction value, gambling is ranked fifth with 4.2%.

Spanish Teen Claims €200k Prize

The Spanish lottery was recently put on the spot because a 15-year-old boy from Barcelona named, Cosmin Rotariu, won a €200.000 jackpot in the latest El Niño lottery draw.

The law states that lottery players should be 18 or older to participate and although the kid’s father, Valeriu, said that he gave him permission to buy a €20 lottery ticket…

…according to the law, even the vendor can get in trouble for allowing him to buy the ticket.

The government has yet to decide how they will handle this unusual case.

Source:

“Spain’s online gambling growth slowed in 2018”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, February 4, 2019.

“Spain’s state-run lottery under fire after teen claims €200k prize”, Peter Amsel, calvinayre.com, January 8, 2019.