Spain's online gambling market has a sound future

The Spanish online gambling market is alive and well and set to deliver revenues of Euro 500 million this year, says Ficom analyst Eduardo Morales Hermo. That represents a Euro 100 million improvement on the Euro 400 million GGR generated in 2016, a year ion which overall turnover topped Euro 10 billion for the first time (see previous reports).

Hermo says that between 2016-2016 turnover grew 22.9 percent to Euro 10.9 billion, with GGR up 34 percent year-on-year to Euro 429 million, with online sports betting the star of the show, accounting for 43.8 percent of GGR and constituting fifty percent of market share.

Significant growth also occurred in the online gaming vertical (casino and mobile) which delivered 41 percent of overall GGR and 27 percent of market activity, mainly from slot and live dealer roulette action.

On the downside, online poker underperformed, and bingo by and large failed to impress.

Hermo observed that the overall gross gaming margin is relatively low in the sports betting vertical at under 5 percent, lagging behind other European regulated markets where it is typically in the 7 to 8 percent range.

Market leaders in the Spanish online casino sector are identified as Bet365, William Hill and Bwin, which generate more than 80 percent of total revenues, whilst 888 and PokerStars dominate the online poker vertical with a similar percentage market share.

“We believe that in 2017 the Spanish online gaming and betting market will pass the Euro 500 million GGR figure,” Hermo forecast.