G3-247 Report SPAIN
THE KNOCK-ON EFFECT Whilst the country wallowed in the midst of the reces-
sion many industries were affected, including the gam- bling industry.
Spain, had in the past, played the role of the European gaming industry’s Golden Goose. It its heyday in the late 1990s and early part of the 2000s, it was a flourishing market that boasted a 250,000 AWP sector, 1,900 gam- ing arcades, 130,000 amusement machines and 1,100 amusement arcades.
International developers kept a keen eye on Spain’s gaming industry and managed to take a fair share of the developmental pie alongside the Spanish giants Cirsa, Franco and Sente, who between them dominated the market.
Tradition and culture plays a huge part in Spain and although the big three continue to dominate the market, their status came crashing down when the recession hit in 2007/2008 and no matter how well known and tradi- tional you are in this sector, there was no magic wand to increase player spend.
Over the last few years hybrids and video AWPs slowly entered the market and reels were
reluctantly replaced. Bar owners saw revenues drop as the
Ducado smoking, coffee drinking older men saw their trustworthy traditional mini reels replaced.
Operations shut down and machine numbers dropped significantly with the biggest lurch in 2010. Coupled with that was the arrival of new technology in the form of video AWPs, which although arrived with a welcome bang in other markets were treated with caution and distrust in Spain.
With the average Spanish player age around 40-50 years old, the new technology scared players more than attracted them, and the introduction of video was a very
slow process, which began with the release of hybrid models to ease the cross over pain.
Over the last few years hybrids and video AWPs slowly entered the market and reels were reluctantly replaced. The bar owners saw their revenues drop as the Ducado smoking, coffee drinking older men saw their trustwor- thy traditional mini reels replaced with something alien.
But everything must change. Sports betting arrived in the mid 2000s and then online betting followed in the summer of 2012 and the structure of the Spanish gaming market changed again. Things began to improve and grow and the players finally began to grasp and wel- come the concept of change, development and growth of new technology.
Today, the gaming market is divided between various sectors: LAE lottery with 44 per cent share in GGR; ONCE lottery with 12 per cent; casinos with four per cent, bingos seven per cent, AWPs (B machines) with 32 per cent, betting shops with 0.6 per cent and online bet- ting with 1.4 per cent share. Total GGR was €8.6bn in 2012 a 4.5 per cent drop on the year previous.
4 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60