Spain’s online gambling market suffers slowdown in Q4

Spain’s online gambling market suffered a slowdown in the final quarter of 2019, as casino games were the only vertical to post year-on-year growth.

Figures released Friday by Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) regulatory body show Spanish-licensed online gambling operators generated revenue of €188.5m in Q4, a 2% decline from the final quarter of 2018 and a 3.2% decline from Q3 2019.

Sports betting revenue fell 10.2% year-on-year to €90m in Q4, while declines were also evident in poker (€20m, -4%) and bingo (€2.7m, -24%). Online casino revenue broke the downward trend, rising 11.7% to €72.3m while the minuscule but highly volatile ‘contests’ segment nearly quadrupled to €610k.

The sports vertical suffered mainly from a lack of interest, as betting turnover slipped 9% year-on-year to €1.85b, of which €1.13b was in-play wagering. In-play turnover was down nearly 22% year-on-year, while pre-match betting rose 23.6% to €663.3m.