Spain’s Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling has reported a gross gambling revenue increase for the fourth quarter of 2023, with the country’s casino segment undergoing significant growth.
For Q4, the authority noted that GGR rose by 3.63 per cent quarter-over-quarter to €315.29m, while improving by 0.55 per cent in comparison to the previous year.
Deposits for the reporting period came in at €1.04bn, a 12.45 per cent increase on the previous quarter and a 9.36 per cent uptick year-over-year, while withdrawals stood at €734.7m, up 19.34 per cent QoQ and 14 per cent YoY.
New accounts grew in comparison to the previous quarter by 20.11 per cent, but declined by 2.31 per cent YoY to 387,620. The monthly average of active game accounts was 1,269,585, up 17.26 per cent QoQ and 6.76 per cent YoY. The new game accounts monthly average was 129,207, up 20.11 per cent QoQ, but down 2.31 per cent YoY.
During the quarter, 78 licensed operators were active, split across five segments – casino: 49; betting: 43; poker: nine; bingo: three; contests: two.
Spain’s casino segment was the main driver in terms of GGR at €171.27m – 54.32 per cent of the total GGR for Q4.
Elsewhere, betting GGR stood at €114.73m (36.39 per cent), bingo was €3.84m (1.22 per cent), contests was €47,583 (0.02 per cent) and poker was €25.41m (8.06 per cent).
Casino’s Q4 GGR of €171.27m is a 6.87 per cent increase QoQ and 20.23 per cent improvement YoY. Slots GGR rose by 25.86 per cent YoY to €105.9m, live roulette improved by 15.26 per cent to €52.1m and blackjack grew by 8.7 per cent to €6.6m.
However, roulette excluding live declined by 5.05 per cent to €6.7m.
Betting’s GGR of €114.73m improved by 1.09 per cent QoQ, but fell by 18.83 per cent in comparison to the previous year.
Pre-match sports betting dropped by 75.98 per cent QoQ and 85.17 per cent YoY to €11.1m, while live sports betting grew by 58.13 per cent QoQ and 53.23 per cent YoY to €93.3m.
Other bets rose by 30.66 per cent QoQ and 123.15 per cent YoY to €8.3m, with horse betting improved by 6.05 per cent QoQ and 10.35 per cent YoY to €1.6m.
Bingo’s GGR of €3.8m was up 5.35 per cent QoQ and 5.96 per cent YoY, while contests’ GGR of €47,583 was an increase of 5.11 per cent QoQ and 61.48 per cent YoY. Poker’s GGR of €25.41m fell by 5.25 per cent QoQ and 2.49 per cent YoY.
Q4 marketing expenditure increased by 20.91 per cent QoQ and 5.25 per cent YoY to €112.97m, broken down into affiliation expenses of €13.95m (down 5.72 per cent YoY); sponsorship of €745,755 (down 57.59 per cent YoY); promotions of €53.01m (up 2.27 per cent YoY); and advertising of €45.22m (up 16.25 per cent YoY).
