Euro Vision: Spain's mobile landscape

In an extra from eGR Mobile Intelligence’s analysis of the mobile gambling landscape around Europe, we look at how Spain is currently liberalising its market, leading to opportunities on mobile

Spain’s previously strict regulatory regime is beginning to gradually liberalise, with the recent addition of slots licences in June for the first time. Much like in Italy, operators sense that the opportunities the Spanish market present might be best fulfilled on mobile.

Gross gaming revenues in Spain’s online market grew 11% to €254m in 2014 with sports betting accounting for a little more than half of that total. While the Spanish regulator, the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), doesn’t break down its revenue figures by the mobile and desktop channels, gaming consultant Eduardo Morales Hermo estimates that those operators who have been developing a mobile offering for a couple of years should be drawing around 30-40% of revenues from the channel. Those newer to the market, he adds, may still have some catching up to do.

Most of the major operators are now active in Spain, including Bwin, bet365, William Hill and PokerStars. Stars has signed three major brand ambassadors with strong ties to Spain: Rafael Nadal, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar and it chose Spain to test launch its casino product last year. Certainly mobile casino is one area all operators are hoping will take off.

“Sports betting, followed by poker are the verticals leading the trend in mobile content,” Morales Hermo says. “But now with slots now on board we shall see casino games grow and probably overtake poker.”

Despite high smartphone penetration, regulatory difficulties in terms of implementing a single wallet, multi-channel system has meant that a large chunk of Spain’s market remains offline, but again this offers potential for growth as the licensing framework continues to liberalise. However, the predominance of Android, the OS of almost 90% of Spanish smartphone users, could be a problem given Google’s continued ban on gambling apps in the Play Store.

Morales Hermo says the high taxation rate – 20% to 25% of GGR depending on the vertical, plus VAT – is the most significant factor holding back operators from investing into mobile and growing the market. With GGR now boosted by slots and exchange, greater mobile product investment should be a possibility going forward.

Mark Fowler, product and trading director at Sportium, Ladbrokes’ joint venture in Spain with Spanish firm Cirsa, says the firm has seen significant growth on the channel since launching a new mobile sportsbook earlier this year. Fowler says more than half of Sportium’s customers are now using mobile and expects more growth to come.

While Fowler does concede that Sportium’s mobile product still lags behind that of Ladbrokes’, primarily because development on the mobile product began earlier, he sees little reason why it cannot catch up, with “a number of improvements to the product” in the pipeline. “With over 50% of the population using a smartphone the opportunities are significant,” Fowler says. “Coupled with the growing digital sports betting market and opportunities around mobile casino we forecast substantial growth through mobile in Spain.”

Morales Hermo expects Spain’s mobile market to continue to grow at a similar pace to the last 12 months. “There are already companies to whom mobile provides more than 50% of their revenues but others are way behind that,” he says. “So the market is going to continue its grow in double digits, as those behind catch up and the ones leading continue to improve their offer in content.”

This is an extra exploring the mobile gambling landscape across Europe which appeared in issue 22 of eGR Mobile Intelligence