Spain’s land-based gambling market recorded higher player spending in 2014, marking the first sign of positive annual growth since the 2008 economic crisis.
This week saw Game Studies, an offshoot of the Codere Foundation, release its annual report on Spain’s gambling industry. The fourth edition of the market survey was compiled from publicly available data and produced in collaboration with the Institute of Policy and Governance at the University Carlos III of Madrid.
The report says Spaniards’ total spending on gambling came to just over €24b in 2014, up 1% from 2013’s figure, the first year-on-year increase since 2008. However, 2014’s total was only three-quarters of 2008’s €32.14b, showing just how much more improvement must be made for the market to regain the ground lost since the Spanish economy imploded.
Regardless, 2014’s gambling spending represented 2.5% of Spain’s gross domestic product, underscoring the industry’s importance to the national economy. The industry directly employs 76k workers – 11k less than in 2007 – while indirectly supporting 154,300.
The dominant form of betting in Spain remains ‘B’ gaming machines with programmed prizes, which saw betting turnover rise 2% to just under €9.6b. Lotteries ranked second with €8.45b, down around €73m from 2013.
Sports betting – including with Spain’s licensed online gambling operators – reported turnover of €3.8b in 2014, a 3% improvement over 2013. Casino spending rose €100m to €1.52b while bingo claimed the remaining slice of the pie.
At a meeting of European gaming regulators in Brussels last week, the head of the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) reported annual figures for the country’s regulated online gambling market. Juan Espinosa said the number of players who had enjoyed some form of online flutter in 2014 came to 824k, of which 87% were men. A similar percentage of online gamblers were between the ages of 18-45 years.
Older players may be underrepresented in the online realm but they remain the biggest spenders. Average spend per player was €243, but this surged to €448 for gamblers aged 46-55 while spending by players aged 18-25 averaged just €64. Men also outspent women by a ratio of €261 to €123.
Sports betting remained the preferred betting vertical, with over 60% of players making an online sports wager. Poker ranked second at 44.8%, followed by casino (20.4%) and bingo (7.9%). It should be noted that until this summer, Spain’s regulated online gambling market didn’t include slots play, only games like roulette and blackjack.
