Spain online GGR up 14.4% in Q3 as ad restrictions easing continues to aid growth

The Q3 betting GGR was also slightly up (0.5%) on Q2’s figure of €346.3 million, with operators continuing to benefit from the Supreme Court’s decision back in April to lift some marketing restrictions, including bans on celebrity advertising and welcome bonuses.

The rise in GGR was aided by increased deposits and withdrawals, which grew 23.9% and 30.3% respectively compared to Q3 2023, while operators took advantage of the relaxed ad restrictions by increasing marketing expenditure 9.7% quarter-over-quarter to €131.7 million. There were 1.7% more new accounts compared to Q2.

There are currently 77 licensed online operators in Spain, with 51 sites offering casino, 42 for sports betting, nine for poker, four for bingo and two for contests.

Casino flourishes in Spain as sports betting falls YoY

Casino GGR stood at €188 million in Q3, comprising 54% of Spain’s total online GGR. It grew 17.3% year-on-year and 9.5% compared to Q2. The increases were aided by blackjack revenue growth of 49.4% and a slots GGR increase of 25.8%.

Quarter-on-quarter, sports betting GGR dropped 6.6% compared to Q2, falling to €135.9 million. Broken down further, pre-match betting dropped 24.3%, while in-play increased 8.7%. This was despite Spain winning the Euros 2024 tournament which ran from 14 June to 14 July.

Despite the quarterly decrease, sports betting GGR still rose 19.8% year-on-year and made up 39.1% of Spain’s total GGR.

Poker continues to fall in popularity with bettors in Spain. The segment’s GGR in Q3 was €20.5 million, 19.7% down in comparison with Q2 and a 23.5% year-on-year decrease.

Bingo, meanwhile, reported €3.7 million in GGR, marginally up (0.7%) over Q2 and a 1.7% increase on Q3 2023.

A look at marketing spend in Q3

Marketing expenses grew 40.9% year-on-year thanks to the easing of restrictions. In Q3, they were broken down into €66.9 million of promotions, €50.4 million on ads, €13.2 million of affiliate expenses and €1.3 million on sponsorship.

Ad expenditure and promotional expenses rose 51.3% and 40.2% respectively, while affiliate advertising also increased by 13.7% year-on-year.

The easing of restrictions and subsequent spikes in marketing expenditure played a part in the Q3  monthly average of active game accounts rising 33.3% year-on-year to 1,443,615. The monthly average of new game accounts at 153,181 was also 42.4% higher compared to the same quarter last year.

Codere Online acknowledged Spain’s favourable online gambling environment since the Supreme Court’s rollback of rules in April in its own Q3 results in November.

The operator’s CEO Aviv Sher said it was attracting higher value players in Spain that have better retention and loyalty rates.

While  the reintroduction of welcome bonuses had a slightly negative impact on Codere Online’s profit margins in Spain in Q3, the measure has helped power the wider market’s Q3 growth.