Despite the suspension of major sporting events due to COVID-19, Spanish gambling revenue grew 12.5% year-on-year in Q1 2020.

The Dirección General del Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) informed that revenue rose to €218.0m during Q1 2020, with players staking €4.80bn during the period, up 3.6%.

During Q1, there were 911,218 active accounts over the month, up marginally year-on-year, though new account sign-ups grew 5.6% to 289,340.

Turning to revenue by vertical, sports betting led the way, with its €110.6m contribution up 8.7% year-on-year and accounting for 50.8% of the quarterly total. This was driven by fixed-odds betting, for which revenue was up 13.1% to €46.3m.

The biggest rise was in fixed-odds betting on other events, which saw revenue jump 91.3% to €1.8m.

For casinos, revenue was up 16.8% at €77.6m. Slots contributed €43.2m, up 15.7%, while the biggest year-on-year rise was recorded for live roulette, which saw revenue grow 35.6% to €18.4m. Standard online roulette also performed strongly, with revenue up 16.7% to €10.7m.

Poker, a product that has enjoyed a return to prominence amid the sporting shutdown, saw revenue grow 13.1% at €24.2m.

BetConstruct has expanded its live casino studio capacity to build branded live casino halls for online gaming companies in the shortest time possible.

In the absence of on-site casino entertainment, the technology and solution provider expands the studio’s physical footprint and empowers gaming businesses to make a smooth transition to online operations by offering them a full-fledged live casino hall in just 30 days. Today, the provider is fully equipped to deliver more than 200 dedicated gaming tables upon request.

For those who want a branded gaming area with distinctive design, languages and game selection, BetConstruct allocates a dedicated space in its live studio and implements a floor-to-ceiling construction of a gaming hall.

Every single notion in such gaming space is up for customization – hall colours, number of gaming tables, dealer attires, table fabric, playing cards design, screens, accessories, game types, languages and more.

The final product meets all the requirements an operator has specified, embodies a distinguished atmosphere of a brand and delivers the look and feel of a real casino to the players, thus elevating their engagement.

According to a new study, a number of video game practices, such as token wagering, real-money gaming and social casino spending, are significantly linked to problem gambling. The study provides evidence that players who engage in these practices are also more likely to suffer from disordered gaming.

Author of the study, Dr. David Zendle from the Department of Computer Science at the University of York, said: “These findings suggest that the relationship between gaming and problem gambling is more complex than many people think.”

“When we go beyond loot boxes, we can see that there are multiple novel practices in gaming that incorporate elements of gambling. All of them are linked to problem gambling, and all seem prevalent. This may pose an important public health risk. Further research is urgently needed.”

For the study, a group of just under 1100 participants were quota-sampled to represent the UK population in terms of age, gender and ethnicity. They were then asked about their gaming and gambling habits.

The study revealed that a significant proportion (18.5%) of the participants had engaged in some behaviour that related to both gaming and gambling, such as playing a social casino game or spending money on a loot box.

“There are currently loopholes that mean some gambling related elements of video games avoid regulation. For example social casinos are ‘video games’ that are basically a simulation of gambling: you can spend real money in them, and the only thing that stops them being regulated as proper gambling is that winnings cannot be converted into cash,” Dr. Zendle said.

“We need to have regulations in place that address all of the similarities between gambling and video games. Loot boxes aren’t the only element of video games that overlaps with gambling: They’re just a tiny symptom of this broader convergence,” Dr. Zendle added.