Is Spain the last El Dorado?

In the coming months, the Spanish market will be the next and arguably the last major European market to go though the gambling regulation process. Now that the US has sealed its doors closed, that France and Italy’s governments have enforced tough legislations on operators and that the UK market that has never been more mature, it seem as if Spain is the last attractive (and growing) market.

But the Spanish online gambling industry isn’t your average market. Spanish people don’t trust foreign companies, and players will only convert if the brand and operators’ customer service teams have a local feel. Operators who look to penetrate the market by simply translating their software without rebranding or hiring local customer support will fail.

Furthermore operators won’t be able to spend massively on offline media buying and get immediate return on investment for one simple reason: search engine rankings are controlled by a few media companies and the SEO entry barriers are extremely high. Players may gain brand awareness, but won’t find the brand when using the generic keywords for search.

For that exact same reason, there is also virtually no Spanish affiliate market.

Another collateral to this specificity is that once PPC campaigns become legal, prices will soar as with neither organic nor affiliate traffic the offer and demand will be high.

Now might be the right time for the leading operators to team up with the media companies which are controlling the Spanish market, and secure traffic and market share before every other operator decides to cross the Pyrenees.

And with the whole of the maturing Latin American market looking towards the Iberian Peninsula for guidance, a market share in Spain is also a market share in South America.

Come to think about it, maybe Latin America is the last gambling El Dorado”¦