Codere Online CFO Oscar Iglesias has stated that the decline in Spain’s net gaming revenue (NGR) during the first quarter of 2025 was due to the reintroduction of several gambling advertising restrictions.
Last year, the Spanish Supreme Court overturned a raft of gambling advertising restrictions implemented by Royal Decree 958/2020 three-and-half-years ago.
These included allowing welcome offers to new players and operators being allowed to use prominent real and fictional celebrities in their marketing campaigns.
In it’s Q1 financial results, Codere Online reported Spain’s NGR had fallen 2% year on year (YoY) to €21.9m (£18.4m), even though average monthly active players increased 4% YoY to 52,000, up from 50,000 in Q1 2024.
Asked why there was a decrease over 12 months, Iglesias explained in the operator’s post investor call that comparing Q1 2025 to the year prior was “difficult” due to the reintroduction of the welcome bonus alongside other promotional strategies.
However, he went on to note that the firm has seen positive trends in April and at the start of May in the market.
The CFO said: “The first quarter comparison is difficult because of the reintroduction of [the] welcome bonus [that] happened in April of last year.
“So this is the last quarter that we have this difficult comparison with the prior year period.
“It’s the impact of the new competitive landscape on the reintroduction of the welcome bonus and some other promotional strategies that now are permitted that previously were part of the prohibited activities.
“I think that’s the primary driver. I can say that even though the first quarter was flat, or slightly down, we are seeing some positive trends.
“We’ve made some changes, especially in the first quarter, focusing our promotional strategies where it needs to be focused on our higher value customers and it’s showing good results in April and in the first few days of May.
“It’s a little too early to say with conviction but within what is a high, more competitive landscape in Spain, I think increasingly we’re going to find better ways to compete,” he added.
Iglesias was also quizzed on the possibility of Spain bringing back marketing restrictions in the near future through more formal legislation.
He responded: “Our understanding is that the government continues to pursue avenues to put the restrictions back into place that were there pursuant to the original executive decree, but they haven’t found a way of doing that.
“This is various legislative initiatives, one that we thought was close back in February through a health care law that we thought would go through but ultimately didn’t.
“Our understanding is the current government continues to work and it really requires the cooperation of with its coalition partners, its minority coalition partners, to get any legislation passed.
“That obviously would be upside for us, [but] we are not counting on it, at least not in our short to medium term.
“We’re assuming that the current environment is that one that we have to operate in.
“Obviously the reintroduction of that restriction on welcome bonuses would be good for us and good for the whole sector.”
Elsewhere, Codere Online reported 8% YoY growth in NGR for the period ending 31 March, 17% on a constant currency basis.
The figure amounted to €57m, up from €53m the year prior, on the back of growth in Mexico and other markets.
In Mexico, NGR spiked 15% YoY to €30.5m, which was helped by a 31% YoY jump in average monthly active players from 62,500 to 82,000.
In the operator’s “other” markets, NGR rose from €4.1m to €4.5m despite actives falling 11% YoY, from 30,600 down to 27,200.
Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 amounted to €1.8m, a negligible increase from the €1.7 reported the year prior.
Commenting on the operator’s results, Codere Online CEO Aviv Sher said: “We are off to a good start in 2025, with net gaming revenue reaching €57m in the first quarter, an 8% increase compared to the same period last year.
“In Mexico, net gaming revenue grew 15% [YoY] to €30.5m, despite the 16% devaluation of the Mexican peso.
“Meanwhile, net gaming revenue in Spain was slightly below last year’s at €21.9m.”
CFO Iglesias added: “We are very pleased with our performance in Mexico and the underlying trends in local currency.
“Also, our portfolio of active customers grew by an impressive 31% versus the prior year [first] quarter, which is quite encouraging.”
On Codere Online’s outlook for the rest of the year, Iglesias reiterated earlier guidance figures, stating: “Based on these results, we believe we are on track to meet our net gaming revenue outlook of €220m-€230m and adjusted EBITDA outlook of €10m-€15m that we provided to investors earlier this year.”
The post Codere Online CFO says change in marketing laws impacted Spanish NGR in Q1 first appeared on EGR Intel.
Operator reports net gaming revenue growth of 8% YoY, despite decline in Spain, as Oscar Iglesias cites the reintroduction of promotional strategies as primary driver behind fall
The post Codere Online CFO says change in marketing laws impacted Spanish NGR in Q1 first appeared on EGR Intel.