Current status of the regulation
Spain is a country with 47 million people that has a very mature gambling regulation.
The Regulator, the DGOJ, published the gambling law in 2011 and in 2012 the first operators started to accept players on their .es websites.
Nowadays it’s not possible to request new licenses until the DGOJ opens a new window (a short period of time in which it is possible to apply for new licenses).
But this doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to get a license, as there are a few licenses on sale. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in discussing this option.
Read more about how to get an online gambling license in Spain.
Online Gambling Licenses in Spain
There are two types of licenses in Spain, General licenses and Singular licenses.
General licenses can only be requested when the “window” is open. DGOJ determines when this happens.
Companies that own a General License can request new Singular licenses at any given time.
General licenses last for 10 years and Singular licenses last 5 years and both types of licenses can be renewed.
General licenses
There are 3 types of General licenses:
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Betting
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Contests
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Other games
Singular licenses
Each General license has different Singular licenses below them.
Singular licenses of the General license betting:
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Apuestas Deportivas Cruzadas (Sports Betting “crossed bets”)
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Apuestas Deportivas-Contrapartida (Sports Betting “Counterpart”)
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Apuestas Deportivas-Mutuas (Sports Betting “Mutual”)
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Apuestas Hípicas-Contrapartida (Horse Betting “Counterpart”)
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Apuestas Hípicas-Mutuas (Horse Betting “Mutual”)
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Otras Apuestas Cruzadas (Other Crossed Bets)
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Otras Apuestas-Contrapartida (Other Bets “Counterpart”)
NOTE: please excuse if any of the translations from Spanish into English is not accurately.
Singular licenses of the General license Other games:
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Slots
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Blackjack
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Roulette
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Bingo
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Poker
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Complementary games
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Punto y banca
Local presence in Spain
In order to require a license a company must be incorporated in any country of the EU and must have a bank account open in any bank of the EU.
They will have to name a local legal representative in Spain.
Guarantee
The required guarantee for the operators is 2.000.000 euros for each General license, for the initial period of operations. This can be with money deposited in the account specifically settled for this in the Bank of Spain or with mortgages of properties located in Spain, or a guarantee insurance.
The minimum amount of the guarantee will be reduced to 1.000.000 euros after the first year of operations but it will have to be calculated, based on their gross income (amounts wagered) of each of the singular licenses.
For example, sports betting adds a 6,5% of wagers to the amount of the guarantee, and most singular licenses for casino games adds 8% of wagers to the guarantee.
If after calculating this, the amount is higher than one million, that will be the amount to have as guarantee.
If the calculation is less than one million, then one million is the minimum amount of the guarantee.
Calculations must be done every year to update the guarantee.
Gambling tax
Gambling tax in Spain is paid quarterly and consists of 20% of GGR.
Other than the quarterly gambling tax of 20% of the GGR, there is an “administrative fee” to be paid yearly that consists of 0,00075 of the total “gross revenue” (this is, the total amount of wagers of the operator).
Main figures of the Spanish gambling market
Quarterly GGR of 240.832.462€ (80 million euros per month approx), distributed as follows:
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Casino: 53,13%
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Sports betting 36,97%
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Poker: 8,36%
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Bingo: 1,53%
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Contests: 0,01%
There are 1 million of active accounts and 100.000 new accounts created per quarter.
GGR by type of games within Casino (quarterly figures):
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Blackjack: 4.913.545€
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Slots: 79.816.269€
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Roulette: 6.404.139€
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Live roulette: 36.817.039€
Some more data (quarterly figures):
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GGR: 240.832.462€
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Deposits: 809.646.212€
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Marketing: 96.308.133€
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Withholdings: 562.599.633€
Within Marketing, the expenditure is split as follows:
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Affiliates: 10.335.112€
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Bonus: 41.465.778€
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Sponsorships: 1.778.809€
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Advertising: 42.728.434€
* All figures are data of Q3 2022
Main operators
Most of the big worldwide known operators operate in Spain.
Some of the ones with more market share are the internationals Bet365, 888, Bwin, William Hill…
Other well known operators also have presence in Spain like Interwetten, Betsson, Leo Vegas, Paf, Bethard…
There are also a few local operators, like Codere, Luckia, Sportium, Casino Barcelona, Casino Gran Madrid.
Conclusions
The Spanish gambling market is very mature and it has almost 80 operators, in a market with approx 50 million people and 80 million euros in monthly GGR.
If you are considering entering in Spain do not hesitate contacting us.