Staff Reporter
There is no shortage of descriptive methods that we can use to discuss the reality of online gambling in the world of professional sports. Given that it’s a 21st-century occurrence that has exploded concurrently with worldwide internet adoption, its story is being written as you read each word of this article.
Given that football is the biggest and most attractive sport for betting, the gambling operator market has proven itself extremely adept at captivating customers, so much so that local governments have started to take diverse measures to mitigate the downsides of this phenomenon.
In fact, the popularity and expansion of the online gambling market have become a case that many entities study regularly. Data analysts see growth in the macro gambling market, SlotsCalendar studies the hybridisation of regular casino gaming and sports betting, and government authorities scramble to take action as a result of increased medical studies on this subject.
Given that European football is the uppermost market at the club level (and houses the biggest football brands), it’s only natural that exorbitant money goes into betting on its clubs. This attracts money via sponsorships and other facets of marketing through visibility.
Some governments see this reality as increased exposure that can have unwanted effects on society. One of the biggest markets to push back against the effects of this situation is the Kingdom of Spain, whose decisions can have ramifications on fellow European countries down the line.
Let’s see what we’re talking about and where the trend may be going!
The Ban on Gambling Advertisement – When, How, and Why?
Gambling in Spain is quite an interesting affair because it blends state-operated gambling entities with private gambling, which is a hybrid system that we see in varying shapes and sizes. Some aspects of gambling are very popular in Spanish culture, the most important of them being the Christmas lottery prize that is so popular within the wider Christmas cultural phenomenon.
The 2011 was the first widely-applicable piece of legislation that treated all kinds of online gambling, going beyond the prior legalisation of online poker. As such, the local authority, the DGOJ, is the regulator that keeps the phenomenon in check and keeps tabs on all operators.
Given that taxes, compliance fees, and financial stability play a very significant role in how the DGOJ awards licences for private operators, it’s no wonder that only serious entities are on the market, which decreases the risk factor. However, there are other risks that the Spanish authority sees, thus taking action.
One of the most interesting situations that happened in gambling legislation started in November 2018, with Royal Decree 958/2020 coming into effect and banning all gambling advertisements for the sake of mitigating risks. These include gambling exposure to minors and the subliminal reminder that can affect recovering addicts.
Reverberations of This Decision
By many accounts, this decision became the subject of backlash and other types of fallouts. In the immediate aftermath, six clubs (Real Sociedad, Mallorca, Cadiz, Levante, Alaves and Granada) lost their shirt sponsorships since they were contracts with gambling operators.
Another highly interesting situation was the response of the Spanish Supreme Court, which overturned some articles in the Royal Decree, mostly because it was incompatible with European Law, especially in the case of the right to freely provide services. However, the 2020 ban still retained some of its most incisive aspects, which shows proof that the intention still has legal legs, even though it still diverges from legal framework.
The overturn, which came in the middle of 2024, annulled several key aspects regarding commercialisation that the Decree previously banned. For example, digital (TV and internet) gambling advertisements returned to legality, just as much as ‘celebrity’ advertisements, both of which are congruent.
The article that stands its ground to this day is Article 12 – the one involving sports sponsorships. As such, gambling advertisements in sports through sponsorships or prime TV advertising remain against the law despite the overturn of the 2020 Royal Decree.
The Spanish Gambling Market in Figures
The current field of online gambling still remains a lucrative piece of business in the Spanish economy, especially thanks to the popularity and success of Spanish clubs in all sorts of sports. Both club and international sides are conspicuously successful in association football and basketball, with Madrid and Barcelona housing immense brands with worldwide resonance.
Figures show this kind of story when looking at the statistics generated by several research entities. Statista’s gambling market analysis in Spain projects revenue of almost $10 billion for 2025 (the current year when writing this article), with a steady CAGR all the way to 2029.
The DGOJ also released telling numbers, with reports for 2024’s Q3 almost reaching €350 in revenue, which represents an immense growth rate of 14.4%. Given that this comes from 77 online gambling operators, these figures are both surprising and impressive.
Another interesting aspect is the fact that casino gaming is actually above sports betting when it comes to Spanish online gambling preferences. Sports betting GGR (from the same DGOJ report) placed the stake at €135.9 million, 6.6% less than the previous quarter. On the contrary, casino gaming had a 9.5% level of growth, with €188 registered during this sector.
Conclusions
To close out this article, we can easily extract the fact that there is a lot of money coming into gambling operators, but marketing opportunities in the world of Spanish sports remain impossible from a legislative standpoint. It may certainly feel frustrating that there is a lot of money on the table, but impossible to access due to the aforementioned Article 12.
It will be interesting if there is any change in how the Spanish regulator decides to posture itself in relation to gambling advertising, especially after the defeat caused by the overturn. La Liga clubs, just as much as other club sides in Spanish sports, can benefit from the cash injection of gambling money that many other European clubs’ benefit from.
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