Gambling advertising and bonus restrictions introduced by the Spanish government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a 41 per cent drop in the number of new online gaming accounts created during the second quarter of the year.

The ban on bonusing and limiting advertising to the hours of 1am to 5am resulted in only 413,790 new accounts being created during the period, a fall of 53 per cent versus the first quarter of the year and a fall of 41 per cent compared to Q2 2019. The number of active accounts also fell during the period to 910,629, a fall of 29.4 per cent versus the previous quarter and 25.35 per cent lower than a year ago.

Customer deposits were 4.74 per cent lower than the first quarter of the year but increased by 10.72 per cent year-on-year to €762.88m, with gross gaming revenue (GGR) falling 4.18 per cent versus Q1 and climbing 17.71 per cent year-on-year to €208.85m. Marketing spend in the second quarter amounted to €40.62m, a fall of 65.65 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 50.55 per cent year-on-year.

With the sporting calendar disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Casino gaming accounted for the bulk of Q2 revenue at €93.54m, equivalent to 44.79 per cent of total GGR, followed by Sports Betting at €68.15m for a 32.63 per cent share of total GGR. Poker accounted for 18.29 per cent of total second quarter GGR at €38.2m, followed by Bingo at €5.05m and Contests at €3.92m.

Q2 2020 Sports betting GGR breakdown (€)

Compared to the second quarter of 2019, Sports Betting GGR was down 20.79 per cent, offset by Casino GGR growth of 36.48 per cent, Poker growth of 97.35 per cent, Bingo growth of 66.86 per cent and Contest GGR growth of 733 per cent.

Q2 2020 Casino GGR breakdown (€)

GamingInteligence

Total online market turnover during the second quarter of the year amounted to €4.75bn compared to €4.64bn in the prior year, with the figures from Spanish gambling regulator DGOJ excluding online pools betting with the state lottery.