The Spanish gambling market regulator (DGOJ) has released fresh data on the legal online gambling sector for the third quarter of 2024. Below are the key figures and trends.
What is the Legal Online Gambling Scene in Spain?
To begin with, Spain is quite a mature European country in terms of compliance (or regulation) in this sector. Gambling, in both land-based and online formats, was legalized back in 2011.
All market-related issues are managed by the regulatory body — the Directorate-General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) under the Ministry of Finance of Spain.
If online operators decide to run their businesses "above board," they are, according to the law, subject to a gambling tax (IAJ) of 20% on GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue). This essentially means the gross revenue received from the sum of all bets (deposits) minus payouts to players from their winnings.
Notably, this tax can vary depending on the province. For example, in Ceuta or Melilla, the rate is lower — 10% instead of the stated 20%.
The regulator issues two types of licenses — a general license (for an entire category of games) and a singular license (for each specific game). The former is valid for 10 years. Among the requirements for operators to obtain the main general license are the registration of a legal entity in any EU member state and financial guarantees amounting to 2 million euros.
Among other things, when submitting an application for registration, a company must pay fees of at least 53,000 euros.
Regarding the volume of the online gambling market segment in Spain, its gross revenue reached 1.23 billion euros in 2023 (+28.38% YoY).
As for the engaged audience — the total number of registered user accounts was over 4.3 million in 2023. The number of active players was 2.64 million people.
The Current State of the Online Sector
- The quarterly gross revenue (GGR) from online gambling in Spain for July-September amounted to 348.1 million euros, which is 14.41% more than the year before.
- Online casinos generated 54.01% of the total sum — 187.99 million euros. Next are sports betting — 135.92 million euros (39.05%), poker — 20.52 million euros (5.89%), and finally bingo — 3.67 million euros (1.05%).
- As for individual segments, the main growth driver in online casinos was slots — bringing in 126.4 million euros (+25.8% YoY). The revenue breakdown is as follows: live roulette — 49.2 million euros (+4.68% YoY), traditional roulette — 6.2 million euros (-8.41% YoY), and blackjack — 6.08 million euros (+2.8% YoY).
- In sports betting, the most funds came from live bets — 73.4 million euros (+12.13% YoY), and pre-match bets — 51.9 million euros (+24.28% YoY).
- Poker revenue, in general, decreased by 23.47% compared to the same period last year, with poker tournaments earning only 14.36 million euros (-27.02% YoY), and cash games — 6.15 million euros (-13.68% YoY).
- In the third quarter, the total amount of player deposits reached a record 1.14 billion euros, increasing by 23.87% year-over-year.
- The amount of funds withdrawn by users also rose by 30.32% over the year to 802.2 million euros.
- Players registered an average of 153,181 new accounts monthly, reflecting a 42.4% year-over-year growth. Note that this only includes accounts where at least one deposit was made.
- The average number of active users per month was 969,977 people (+30.81% YoY).
- Currently, there are 77 licensed operators in Spain. The distribution by segments is as follows: 51 hold a license for operating online casinos, 42 for sports betting, 9 for poker, 4 for bingo, and 2 for lotteries.