The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) has recorded a year-on-year increase in gross gaming revenue despite a fall in sports betting revenue

The Spanish regulator, Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), has announced that the gross gambling revenue (GGR) for the year 2020 has amounted to €850.7m. This is a significant increase when compared to 2019 when Spain’s GGR amounted to €748.2m.

The number one source of revenue for last year’s GGR was sports betting even though the betting vertical experienced a minor slump during the year.

On the other hand, casino, poker and Bingo GGR all experienced a year-on-year increase with contests revenue being the big winner with a massive 185.7% increase.

The GGR statistics

• Sports betting – €365.1M, 7.1% decrease
• Casino – €350.8M, 33.7% increase
• Poker – €110.3M, 35.8% increase
• Bingo – €16.5M, 40.8% increase
• Contests – €8.0M, 185.7% increase

Numbers regarding the players also increased year-on-year. The amount spent on online gambling amounted to €21.60BN, an increase of 15% from 2019 (18.78BN).

Active accounts also rose by 16% to 2.9million players, with the number of active players amounting to 1.5million. This is a year-on-year increase of 8.8%.

Spending did not just stop here as the DGOJ announced that operators’ spending also increased during the year:

• Marketing – €462.1M, 24.2% increase

This spend was further broken down by the regulator:

• Advertising – €199.7M
• Promotions – €197.3M
• Affiliate Costs – €38.5M
• Sponsorships – €26.6M

The DGOJ also released fourth quarter figures. The GGR amounted to €231.2M, an increase of 20% when compared to the third quarter.

The GGR figures for the fourth quarter, according to the DGOJ:

• Sports betting – €103.5M
• Casino – €97.8M
• Poker – €24.9M
• Bingo – €3.9M
• Contests – €1.1M

Other significant figures for the fourth quarter are:

• Casino betting handles – €3.43BN
• Sports betting handles – €2.50BN
• Customer spend – €1.07BN
• Customer Withdrawals – €840.7M
• Marketing spend – €148.8M

1. Advertising – €71M

2. Promotions – €56.3M

3. Affiliation expenses – €12.2M

4. Sponsorship – €9.2M

More than just gambling with the DGOJ

The DGOJ is the main regulator in the country, issuing and suspending licences depending if the operator is compliant to regulations set out by the DGOJ.

The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), the Spanish gambling regulator, has launched a consultation regarding loot boxes. This consultation will decide whether loot boxes should be subject to new regulations, classifying it under gambling products or banned outright

The cause for concern regarding these loot boxes is due to Spain’s Gambling Act. Under the act gambling is described as involving payment for participation, chance in determining the result and a prize transferred to the winner.

Due to this, the DGOJ stated that loot boxes could easily be considered gambling, depending on whether the loot box purchase was an action distinct from purchase of the game, prize depending on chance or whether the prize could be exchanged for monetary value.

Source: IGBNorth

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