Spanish GGR rises 51% year-on-year

Spanish gambling revenue for the first quarter was €304.9m.

Spain.- The Spanish gambling regulator the DGOJ has reported that gross gambling revenue for the first quarter of the year was €304.9m. That’s a rise of 51 per cent year-on-year but a fall of 2.7 per cent from the previous quarter.

Online casino revenue rose 29.1 per cent year-on-year to €143.3m while betting revenue doubled to €130.6m. Poker revenue rose by 24.9 per cent to €27.3m and contest revenue soared by 730.4 per cent to €250,000, up from €30,000 in Q1 2022. Only bingo revenue fell, down by 6.6 per cent at €3.3m.

Operators spent €93.3m on marketing, a drop of just 0.8 per cent from last year. Over half of this (€50.1m) was spent on promotions, while €30m was spent on advertising, €11.8m in affiliation expenses and €1.2m on sponsorship, the latter being a rise of 93.1 per cent year-on-year despite the ban on football sponsorship.

There were 1,158,628 active monthly player accounts in the quarter, up by 11 per cent year-on-year. Spain has 78 active licensed gambling operators.

Spain to draft rules for loot box interactions

The Spanish minister for consumer affairs Alberto Garzón has instructed his ministry to devise technical regulations for loot boxes that he says will make Spain “Europe’s pioneer” in protecting minors from loot box interactions. The mechanism allows players to buy random chances of winning an in-game item.

Loot boxes were not included in the last update of Spain’s gambling legislation, which focused on protections for young people. However, Garzon’s ministry conducted a 12-month investigation into loot box purchases in video games and their potential risk for minors.