Basque region is first to allow sports betting in Spain

The Spanish gambling market is currently valued at around €32bn. In October 2007, the Basque region becomes the first Comunidad Autónoma, or region, to enable sports betting activities in Spain.

Ladbrokes has formed a joint-venture with Cirsa Slot Corporation SL, a division of CIRSA Corporation, to develop a sports betting business in Spain.

Cirsa Slot currently accounts for 9% of the Spanish slot machine market, servicing over 15,000 food and beverage outlets with gaming areas and 90 arcades. CIRSA Corporation also operates casinos, arcades and bingo halls throughout Spain.

The newly formed joint-venture will now apply for the new betting licences that are being offered in Madrid, following the passing of a a new decree in December 2006, to regulate dedicated betting shops, non-dedicated betting kiosks (bars, arcades and bingo halls) and remote betting (telephone and Internet) for the first time.

Regarding the formation of the new joint-venture, Christopher Bell, Chief Executive of Ladbrokes plc commented;

"This represents another major step forward in our international aspirations. In December we opened our first shops in Italy and successfully tendered for new licences. Now we have formed a JV with a market leader in Spain that gives us access to a network of thousands of potential site operators. As soon as regulation allows we are confident that the combination of Ladbrokes' vast experience and expertise in betting and the local knowledge and operational capability of Cirsa will build a strong business in Spain."

Pablo Alcalá, Director of Cirsa Slot commented;

"Sports betting is set to become an increasingly mainstream activity in Spain and we believe that this Joint Venture builds on the strengths of both companies Ladbrokes with over 100 years experience in betting and Cirsa with its massive presence in the Spanish market."

William Hill also recently entered into a joint-venture, with Codere, a Spanish gaming company that operates 76 bingo halls across Spain and more than 30,000 slot machines in bars and amusement arcades.

William Hill has pencilled in plans to spend about €10m (£6.8m) in each region, putting betting kiosks in bingo halls and adult gaming centres and possibly installing betting machines within bars.

The joint venture recently launched its Spanish brand - Victoria Apuestas and has developed the infrastructure needed to control the joint venture operations.

On November 1, 2007. Codere announced that a subsidiary of the joint venture had been awarded one of three licenses granted to offer sport betting in the Basque region of Spain. Garaipen Victoria Apustuak S.L is a company in which the Codere & William Hill joint venture has a 67% stake, and the remaining 33% is held by local Basque partners, including 27 local gaming operators. It said that this company plans to invest a total of approximately €31.6 million and to create 205 jobs in the Basque region.

The joint-venture has also submitted a licence application for the Madrid region and acquired leases on a number of premises there.

Betbull plc also recently signed a five year Joint Venture agreement with Grupo Orenes one of the top Spanish leisure and gaming groups, to jointly pursue licensed retail betting opportunities in Spain.

Grupo Orenes is a Spanish holding company and one of the leading operators in the leisure, hotel, catering and gaming sectors. It currently operates approximately 10,000 recreational gaming machines, 15 bingos halls, 8 casinos, 54 gaming centres and 2 hotels in various parts of Spain as well as in Italy and Croatia.

In October 2007 Betbull also announced that it had also formed a partnership with bwin Interactive Entertainment AG to offer retail betting in Spain. It said that the joint venture would pilot and roll out licensed retail betting outlets in the Madrid area under the bwin brand. Commenting on the announcement, Simon Bold, Director of Betbull, said:

"The addition of one of the largest betting and gaming operators in Europe can only strengthen what we have already: solid experience, know how and product innovation in the European retail market. We are looking forward to working with bwin and leveraging off their considerable market recognition. The forthcoming year will see the fruition of many months of planning and fine tuning of our betting products and systems for the Spanish market. We are confident we have the knowledge, product, resources and now brand awareness to become a major retail presence in the Province of Madrid and eventually across Spain as further liberalization of the gaming market unfolds."

Betfred recently signed an agreement with Ekasa, a Basque company, to build and operate new betting shops, to be called Reta - Spanish for "dare". Initially, most of the betting is expected to be on football matches, especially the premier La Liga. In October Betfred was also awarded one of three licenses granted to offer sport betting in the Basque region of Spain

To cite this article: Niall.A.O'Connor (2007) "Basque region is first to allow sports betting in Spain". (Bettingmarket.Com).