The explosive growth which characterised the dot.es online gambling market during its opening months began to level off in the final quarter of 2012, new figures from Spanish regulator the DGOJ have indicated.
While stakes achieved their highest monthly return of €484m in October and gross gaming revenues (GGR) peaked at €22.3m in November, both suffered declines in December, while new player recruitment progressively fell away during the final three months of 2012.
The monthly average of new registered players in Spain fell to 72,453 during Q4 from 107,353 in Q3, with the DGOJ observing that:
“In the absence of more information to assess the possible seasonality impact, it can be concluded that, following strong growth of the online gambling market (both in terms of stakes, GGR and players) in the first months after regulation of the sector began in June 2012, the last quarter of 2012 has produced a more moderate expansion of the online gaming market.”
Despite the apparent slowdown, fourth-quarter GGR from the dot.es market, which first opened for business on 5 June last year, grew by 41% over the previous three months to €61.4m, with stakes up 24% to €1.36bn.
Sports betting dominated the new online market from a product perspective, accounting for 48.4% of GGR in the final three months of 2012, well ahead of cash poker with 19.6%, and poker tournaments and roulette, each of which accounted for 8.8% of revenues from the dot.es sector. Online bingo continued to lag, with just 3.6% of the market, marginally ahead of blackjack with 3.4%.
Spain’s GGR of €61.4m was around a third of that generated by its more established dot.country counterparts in Spain and France during the same period, France reporting GGR of €181m and Italy of €205.5m, the latter bolstered by the regulation of a wider range of products, most notably of casino table games and slots.
Denmark, opened five months ahead of Spain last January, generated GGR of approximately €79m during the same period despite having a far smaller population, although this did include a contribution from sports bets placed offline. The Danish regulator authorised slots from the off, set a competitive tax rate across all products of 20% of gross profits and allowed poker operators to open to international liquidity, all of which ensured high legal participation among operators and squeezed the grey market.
Spain’s regulator is due to decide by 22 April on whether or not online slots and exchange betting will be legalised within the dot.es market, following a recent consultation. The land-based slots lobby in Spain is understood to oppose the potential expansion, seen as benefitting the large international players which now dominate online.
Article written by Katy Stirland
