Spanish marketing spend skyrockets in Q3 ahead of advertising blackout

Spain’s online gambling revenue (GGR) rose 2.8% year-on-year (YoY) for Q3 2020 to €197.2m (£177m), according to the latest figures from the country’s gambling regulator. The DGOJ said sports betting accounted for 43.2% of total Q3 GGR at €85.2m, while online casino represented 42.5% at €83.9m. The remaining Q3 GGR was made up by poker with 11.7% (€23m), bingo with 2% (€3.9m) and contests with 0.6% (€1.2m).

The DGOJ noted that despite the small annual increase in overall GGR, the sports betting vertical suffered a 15.4% YoY decrease in GGR from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020. Casino, poker, bingo and contests all recorded annual increases in terms of revenue, but conversely all suffered quarter-to-quarter (QoQ) decreases. Sports betting was the only vertical to improve its revenue stream moving from Q2 2020 to Q3 2020, increasing by 25.1%, with a 32.6% and 31.9% leap in pre-match and in-play betting respectively as sporting schedules resumed after disruption caused by Covid-19. Elsewhere, marketing spend in the Spanish market for Q3 represented a significant increase for both YoY and QoQ, with looming advertising restrictions forcing the industry to act before the incoming marketing blackout. Total marketing spend in Q3 2020 amounted to €150m, an 81.4% increase YoY and an astronomical 269.5% on from Q2 2020. The monthly average of active accounts in Spain also saw a slight annual increase of 1.4% for the reporting period to 881,755. Finally, the DGOJ revealed there were 80 licensed operators in the Iberian nation during the period.