Spain Constitutes New Regulatory Body

In the wake of the online casino segment surging in numbers, Spain has instated a new advisory board that consists of leading national gambling industry experts. Their primary concern will be devising a new all-round gaming strategy to be implemented on country's level.

The board, named Consejo Asesor del Juego Responsible (CAJR), was established by the country's official regulatory body – Direccion General de Ordenacion del Juego (DGOJ) – to which it will serve as support with questions of development, execution and overall management of online gaming policies in Spain.

Meeting the Demand

CAJR will consist of 25 top experts on all matters gambling, some of them being representatives of top iGaming companies and operators, such as Playtech and Paf...

...Among illustrious names are Sportium (sports betting specialists) CEO, Alberto Eljarat, R.Franco software company vice president, Maria Jose Gallardo, as well as Luckia Gaming Group's acting legal counsel, Francisco Feijoo. The chair of the board will be Juan Espinosa Garcia, who is the current president of the DGOJ.

It was the regulator's preference to have the new board consist of specialists from various fields – hence, authorities on psychology social health, welfare and consumer rights have all been included in order to create a well-rounded commission that will tackle some hot issues related to responsible gambling.

Unprecedented Growth

During the third quarter of 2018, Spanish iGaming recorded a massive year-on-year leap in virtually all of its segments...

...The 29% rise in gross gaming revenue (€181.8 million) boils down to the wildly successful sports wagering period, thanks to the World Cup that was still ongoing when Q3 began. Despite the fact that Spanish side did not progress past 1/8 finals, Spaniards kept a high interest in betting so that the amount of money wagered was 21.6% higher than in the same period last year.

Also contributing to this were slot and table games whose GGR exceeded last year's by 39.2%, video poker with a 35.1% rise (thanks to liquidity pooling with France and Portugal) and even bingo, which rose by 11.3%.

It All Comes Down to Marketing

During this particular period, Spain's key operators began placing ads in a more strategic manner and invested into marketing way more heavily than before: advertising levels in all segments, via all available channels (online, print, TV ads, radio, billboards...) grew by 56.3%, leading a total €75.9 million in expenditure!

Possibly the grandest leap of all was in the sponsorship department, which soared by an incredible 83.4% - €28.6 million was spend in player bonuses, whereas some key land-based resorts such as Casino Barcelona signed vital partnership agreements with developers in the ranks of Yggdrasil and Red Rake Gaming.

Source:

“Spain forms new regulatory board to manage the surging online gaming sector”, europeangaming.eu, December 22, 2018.