The Spanish gambling market is once again experiencing a downturn due to low profit margins in sports betting. iGB
The Spanish gambling sector was once more affected by low sports betting margins in the second quarter, with operators earning less than 2.5% in profit from wagers for the fourth consecutive three-month period.
Spain’s overall gambling revenue was impacted by low betting margins, with the nation’s total gambling revenue reaching €203.9 million. Despite a total wager increase of 8.3% to €71.2 billion, this represented a 5.6% year-on-year decrease.
Sports betting revenue remained low at €60.9 million, down 33.8% year-on-year and 6.7% from the first quarter.
The reason for the low sports betting revenue was again low profit margins. Betting stakes were €28.1 billion, up 5.0% year-on-year. This signifies that sports betting operators had a margin of just 2.2% – the fourth consecutive quarter below 2.5%.
Margins were low across all types of bets, with pre-match sports betting at 2.6%, in-play sports betting at 1.8% and horse racing at 4.8%.
On the other hand, the casino industry continued to expand, with revenue of €117.2 million in the second quarter, up 17.3% year-on-year. This came from €37.4 billion in wagers. Slot machines accounted for €71.4 million of total revenue, up 23.0%, while live roulette revenue grew 15.4% to €34.1 million. Random number generator roulette revenue fell 5.9% to €6.2 million, while blackjack revenue fell 3.9% to €5.4 million.
Elsewhere, bingo revenue grew 2.7% to €3.4 million, while poker revenue increased 10.8% to €22.5 million.
## Marketing Costs Take a Dip
The gaming sector is still grappling with advertising limitations that began last year. All betting partnerships with Spanish teams were terminated at the start of the 2021-22 football season. Television and radio commercials are now only permitted between 1 am and 5 am, and this regulation was also applied to YouTube videos.
Overall, marketing expenditures decreased by 30.3% to €89.6 million in the second quarter of 2021.
The prohibition on most sponsorships resulted in a substantial 95.1% reduction in sponsorship spending, reaching only €375,479. Traditional advertising spending also suffered, declining by 50% to €31.9 million.
Affiliate marketing spending also experienced a notable decrease, falling by 21.4% to €7.9 million.
The only marketing channel that exhibited growth was free wagers, which increased by 0.6% to €49.5 million.
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