A fort that the main national operators have managed to take advantage of. In 2018, the main five Spanish gambling companies specialized in sportsbooks, both traditional and online, exceeded for the first time 2 billion euros in joint income in this modality.

Of the 2,137 billion euros gambled by users, a 35% more than last year, as it is registrated on the annual accounts of the latest Sportium exercise, a company belonging to Cirsa group; Codere Online, a society specialized in sportsbooks from Codere; Luckia Apuestas and Basque firms Kirolbet and Retabet.

Due to the business numbers, these firms have become giants, some of them with an international presence. Sportium, since May, belonging 100% to Cirsa after aquiring the 50% to Ladbrokes, is a leader on this field, with 626 million collection, a 14% increment. It is followed by Codere subsidiary, with an increment of 168%, up to 518 million; Basque company Retabet, with a total income of 424 million; Luckia, which generated a 564 million collection, of which 336 were generated by bets; and Kirolbet, with 232 million coming from this gaming modality.

Howeccer, this huge income does not produce big profit due to the betting business: the big jackpots in order to attract gamblers. Once you substract the business numbers you obtain one of the keY indicators of the sector, known as Gross Gaming Revenue.

According to the data reflected on their annual records, the margin accumulated among Sportium, Codere Online, Luckia, Retabet and Kirolbet were of 253.1 million, a 28% more than in 2017, and supposes an average of 12% of the whole income.

The greatest margin was obtained by Sportium, with 86 million euros, although with related with the total collection, Kirolbet and Luckia obtained a 14% margin. The smallest margin was for Codere, with a 5%, due to its accelerated growth bet on this segment.

The five main Spanish sportsbook houses have total net benefits of 14,7 million, a 15,2% less than in 2018, and they barely represent a 0,7% of their accumulated gross incomes.

However, not all of them registrated winnings. Codere subsidiary lost 3,8 million in 2018, a million less than the red numbers it obtained in 2017, while Luckia lost 3,2 million, while last year it obtained a 369,000 euros benefit. Retabet was the most profitable, with 9,8 million of benefit.

The main rivals of these companies are foreign houses without subsidiaries in Spain. William Hill, Bet365, Bwin or Betway have their venue in Malta for fiscal reasons. These companies, as well as the Spanish firms, face a growing social opposition for two reasons: the opening of betting houses without limit or distance among them or near schools, or an agressive advertising activity.
The first point depends on the regulation of each autonomous community. The latest was Madrid, which approved in May a decree that set a minimum distance of 100 metres between this venues and the schools. Besides, Asturias paralized the concession of licences in March.

With regard of advertising, a decree that regulates schedules and messages for the advertisements of online betting houses is paralized from 2017.
PSOE included in its programatic proposal announces Tuesday a regulation which is "similar to those of tobacco products," it means, its prohibition. So far, it has not reduced the business of the operators.