Spain’s regulated online gambling market generated the amount of €125.7 million in gross gambling revenue during the fourth quarter of 2016, a report by the country’s regulator, Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego, showed. The figure posted reflected a 32.6% increase from a year earlier.
Spanish online players wagered a total of €2.9 billion during the reviewed three months, up 19.9% from the previous year.
In terms of revenue, sports betting took the largest chunk of the Spanish revenue pie in the fourth quarter of 2016. Revenue from that particular segment accounted for 55.52% of the bulk. Casino represented 28.6% of the total. Revenue from poker accounted for 12.12%. Bingo contributed nearly 2% to the overall revenue, and contests accounted for 1.76%.
As for amounts gambled, sports betting occupied the top position with a 43.82% share. Casino wagers accounted for 41.17% of the whole. Poker represented a 14.27% chunk. Bingo wagers accounted for 0.65% of all amounts wagered. And contests had a small 0.1% share in the fourth quarter of the year.
Looking at the separate online gambling segments, betting saw a growth in both gross gambling revenue and the amounts wagered. Betting wagers totaled €1.3 billion during the quarter in review, up 7.7% year-on-year. Betting revenue amounted to €69.77 million, up 30.6% from the same quarter of the previous year.
The casino segment reported a massive 53.96% rise in amounts wagered to €1.2 billion. Casino revenue amounted to €35.95 million, up 58.83% from a year earlier.
Slots games accounted for the largest casino revenue chunk. Revenue from those totaled €16.78 million during the reviewed three months, up the impressive 98% year-on-year. Roulette generated the amount of €12.77 million, thus accounting for 35.52% of the whole. Revenue from blackjack amounted to €6.4 million and represented 17.8% of the whole.
Poker saw a drop in amounts wagered and a slight increase in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2016. The amount of €415.6 million was gambled in the reviewed period, down 6.9% from a year earlier. Poker revenue totaled €15.23 million, up 4.6% from the same quarter of 2015.
Revenue from online poker tournaments amounted to €8.5 million and accounted for 55.9% of the poker bulk. It increased 16.9% from the same quarter of the previous year. Cash game revenue dropped 7.6% year-on-year to €6.7 million. It represented 44.1% of the overall poker revenue.
Spain is an active participant in ongoing talks over the creation of an online poker network that will include several more European ring-fenced markets. Italy, Portugal, France, together with the UK are the other countries to have expressed interest in shared online poker liquidity. According to recent comments by gambling regulators, first shared liquidity agreements may be announced by mid-2017.
Online poker in the above-mentioned countries has not had its best times over the past several years and merging their player pools is seen as a possible solution to the issue.
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