Poll: Are the latest Spanish results a sign for concern?

The latest figures released by the Spanish online gambling regulator raise some troubling questions for the newest major dot.country sector with growth seeming to have levelled off less than a year following the market launch.

Gross gaming revenues dropped by 1% in Q1 to €60.84m for the three month period, while turnover dropped 0.7% to €1.37bn and average monthly registrations dropped 29%. The Spanish regulator La Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) said the period showed a “stagnation” of the market, but is that the full picture?

With the country racked by an economic crisis that has seen unemployment peak at 27% and the economy shrink by 0.5% in the first three months of the year, it’s perhaps unsurprising to see the online gambling market also stutter a little. The Spanish government has declared the worst is over for the country’s economy so this could just be a temporary setback.

But are the Q1 figures from the Spanish regulator a temporary blip or signs of a wider malaise affecting the market? The economic crisis in Spain has had a major impact on consumer confidence and leisure spending and despite its ‘recession proof’ tag the gambling sector will not be immune to that. Could things get worse before they get better?

More broadly there is also the possibility this is just a warning sign for other dot.country markets that are also caught up in the Eurozone financial meltdown. Certainly operators and regulators in Italy and France will be keeping a close eye on the next set of results from Spain. We also shouldn’t discount the impact of the black market on the Spanish sector. Could this be a factor in growth slowing in Q1?

This week’s poll asks what comes next. Will it be a bump in the road or the start of a downhill slide? Or is this a bigger problem than just a Spanish one? Cast your vote on the right hand side of the page and let us know what you think.