Spanish Gambling Sites
Spanish online casinos are any online casino sites that accept bets from citizens of Spain and allow financial transactions in Euros. Though the legal landscape of online gambling in Spain is changing, Spanish people do for the most part currently have access to legal online gambling. While Unibet leaving the market was unfortunate, the most popular gambling site in Spain www.bwin.es has obtained a license and is now legal to use. BWIN even began sponsoring Real Madrid back in 2008 and was their on-shirt sponsor until the 2012-2013 season. Mar 03, 2021 Spanish online gambling laws are very strict when it comes to dealing with rogue operators. However, that hasn’t discouraged offshore sites based in locations like Puerto Rico from offering services to Spanish poker enthusiasts. Consequently, regulated sites operating on the local fenced market constantly compete for traffic. Spanish speakers make up the major part of all customers in most Spanish casinos, as well as in the best online casinos for Costa Rica players, Argentina casino sites, Cuban gambling portals, Peruvian online casino sites, casinos for Mexico players, and many other gambling websites.
The History of Sports Betting in Spain
The Spanish government has had a relaxed stance on betting for many years. For decades you could find betting shops that were set up to take wagers from Brits, and while illegal, no one bothered with them. Online betting was unregulated and open, so players used websites such as Unibet and BWIN in order to place bets online.
The laws began changing in 2008 when legal betting shops that targeted Spaniards opened in Madrid. As this evolved, the government saw the growing need to regulate online betting.
New laws were quickly passed and in 2012 many sites such as Unibet and Pinnacle Sports left the Spanish market, while other sites were forced to either obtain a Spanish licence or follow suit and leave.
While Unibet leaving the market was unfortunate, the most popular gambling site in Spain www.bwin.es has obtained a license and is now legal to use. BWIN even began sponsoring Real Madrid back in 2008 and was their on-shirt sponsor until the 2012-2013 season.
This gave them great exposure in Spain making them perhaps the largest betting site in the market. This happened before they were Spanish licensed. La Liga sponsorship has long been used by gambling sites to attract business. This continued with the regulated market as Sevilla FC was also sponsored by popular European betting site Interwetten.
How We Find Legal and Safe Bookmakers
- Fully licensed and certified by independent regulators.
- Approved for secure financial transactions and data protection.
- Reputation for dealing with complaints quickly and fairly.
Since the Spanish Gambling Act was introduced in 2011, operators need a separate licence for each gambling product they offer. As a result, some bookmakers offer only casino and some only offer sports betting.
To bet online legally from Spain, you need to open an account with an internet bookmaker that uses a .es domain name and is licensed by Juego Seguro.
You will know they are licensed because the logo shown right is listed on the bottom part of their website. Also, if searching their website you should find their sports betting license details. For example: Apuestas No/Ref: 13/GA/1002 is the code for BWIN’s licence to take sports bets.
All Spanish bookmakers recommended at SBO.net hold licences from Juego Seguro, so you can rest assured you are secure and betting legally.
How to Bet Online
To bet at one of our recommended bookmakers, you’ll need to first register an account. During the registration processes you’ll need to enter your DNI number (this is found on your Documento nacional de identidad, or in English your National ID Card). You might also be asked to email a scanned copy of your DNI/NIE at a later date.
This is to simply used to verify your identity. Remember Spanish sites are legal and heavily regulated. Here you can be assured of fair treatment, but large wins will be reported to the Spanish tax authority (Agencia Tributaria). This shouldn’t be a concern as a safe betting environment is provided.
Spanish Gambling Sites
After opening your account you’ll need to make a deposit to start betting. There are many options for this. Most Spanish betting sites accept deposits made with MasterCard, VISA or with e-wallets such as PayPal and Skrill.
When you have made a deposit with one of our recommended bookmakers, you will be able to access some of Spain’s best bets that include outstanding odds and free bet bonus codes.
At any time, if you wish to cash out your winnings, or full balance, you can simply request a withdrawal that is usually processed within a few days.
The Most Popular Sports
Spain loves sport and there are a huge range of sports and markets available at our recommended Spanish betting sites. Sports often found at Spanish bookmakers include:
- Football
- Tennis
- Basketball
- Formula 1
- Futsal
- Handball
- Volleyball
- Cycling
- Golf
- American Football
- Athletics
- Combat sports
When you drill down in the menu you’ll find that for each sport the leagues covered and wagering options are massive. Online betting in Spain goes hand in hand with football. You can bet on La Liga, the English Premier League, Serie A from Italy, Bundesliga from Germany and leagues from more than four-dozen other countries.
On all matches from these leagues it is possible to bet on home/away/draw (1X2), over/under on goals, as well as handicap betting. You’ll also find dozens of propositions such as total corners, bookings and even exotic bets such as which goalkeeper will touch the ball last.
Most betting sites in Spain also offer live betting. It doesn’t matter where the sport is from, at most times of the day or night there are several dozen matches available for in-play wagering.
This could be a Rafael Nadal tennis match currently in progress or it could be for a football or basketball match. For basketball this might be Liga ACB, NBA from the United States, or even PBA from the Philippines. Most Spanish sites are very proud of their live betting coverage, as well as how many markets they offer.
Is Online Betting Popular in Spain?
Legal regulated online betting is relatively new to the market and many sports fans might not even be aware it exists. One thing is sure however; there is no doubt it will catch on in a hurry.
Spain has some of the best players in the world competing on the international scale. Spaniards Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer in Tennis, Jorge Lorenzo in Moto GP, Fernando Alonso in Formula 1 and Pau Gasol in Basketball are just the tip of the iceberg.
Where Spain really takes pride is football. La Furia Roja has been one of the most dominant national teams in the world recently and has three major championships in recent years. Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012.
El Clásico
When Spanish football giants Barcelona and Real Madrid face off in El Clásico, the whole world watches. The matches, that take place at least twice a season, are broadcast in over 185 countries.
Recent fixtures have seen lots of surprises and been dominated by Barcelona. The Catalan club have not experienced defeat in El Clásico since 2016 and humiliated their great rivals by beating them 5-1 in October 2018.
Unsurprisingly, this huge Spanish sporting occasion is very popular with bettors. Bookmakers offer a huge range of markets that only adds to the excitement.
Spain Betting FAQs
Yes. It’s completely legal and secure to place bets with a range of bookmakers online. If you sign up to a new site you may be able to claim bonuses.
Sign up at your favourite betting site using your DNI/NIE number, make a deposit with your preferred banking method, find your bet and place your wager.
There are a huge number of football betting markets and all major bookmakers offer odds on Spanish leagues. Visit a betting site and take a look at what they offer to get started.
There are lots of very good betting sites available to Spanish residents. To protect yourself, ensure that your site holds a licence from Juego Seguro.
Related Articles
Spain is a member of the European Union and the native currency of Spain is the Euro. Thanks to the Euro, citizens of Spain have access to lots of online gambling sites. Europe is a major market for online casinos, especially after many were forced out of the North American market. Because of a focus on the European market, it’s easy to find online casino sites that do business in Euros.
Spanish online casinos are any online casino sites that accept bets from citizens of Spain and allow financial transactions in Euros. Though the legal landscape of online gambling in Spain is changing, Spanish people do for the most part currently have access to legal online gambling. Big changes are on the horizon for online gambling in Spain, as the Spanish government moves to regulate and control online casino gambling much like state governments in the US or governments in some regions of Europe.
Is Online Gambling Legal in Spain?
Spain has fairly relaxed gambling laws. All forms of gambling are legal in Spain, including traditional casino gambling, online casino play, lotteries, and sportsbooks. All of these forms of gambling are controlled by the government, but are available in some form in Spain’s borders.
Legal gambling in Spain is a product of the late 20th century. For 150 years of Spain’s history, from the early 19th century into the 1970s, all forms of gambling were illegal in Spain except for state-sponsored lotteries. In 1977, the Spanish government, hurting for new sources of revenue, legalized and started regulating skill-based gambling. It took another four years for the Spanish government to get comfortable enough with gambling revenue to legalize games of chance, so slot machines and other luck-based games weren’t legal until 1981.
These days, the Spanish gambling industry is in a period of renaissance, making Spain one of the busiest gambling nations in the world. The Spanish people spend twice as much on gambling every year as the gambling-happy UK. Because of heightened activity in gaming, new legislation has been passed or is in the works to give the Spanish government a piece of the online gambling pie.
In 2008, Spain was divided into 17 gambling districts, with each region given the exclusive power to grant gambling licenses. As of this writing, Spain is home to 40 casinos and more than 250,000 gambling machines such as slots in airports and bars. The only country with more standalone gaming machines is the UK. Sportsbooks are hugely popular in this football-crazed country, with legal sports gambling making up a big chunk of the increased gaming revenue throughout Spain.
In order to gain a foothold in the online market, new legislation about online gambling in Spain is changing as this is being written. Starting in 2002, the Spanish government started researching ways to regulate and legalize online gambling and allow for online casino sites to earn gaming licenses from the Spanish government. According to industry analysts, we will see Spanish-based online gambling licenses available to EU-based casino site operators sometime in the next two years.
In short, online casino gambling is fully legal throughout Spain. In fact, Spanish gamblers will soon have a lot of new options for online gambling, thanks to the Spanish governments involvement in the control of online gambling websites.
Spanish Online Casinos & Playing For Real Money in Euros
The Euro is one of the most valuable currencies in the world, and also one of the most widely-accepted currencies at online casino sites. Finding a casino that does business in Euros can save you from paying stiff fees or spending time and money converting your own currency.
Since citizens of Spain use the Euro as their native currency, it is important for online gamblers in Spain to play at real online casinos that accept financial transactions in Euros. Currency conversion is a possibility, especially since so many eWallets and other payment transfer methods have their own currency conversion systems, but since so many online casinos accept the Euro for deposits and withdrawals, there’s no reason to choose the expense of currency conversion and the time added to your transaction while you want for your currency to convert.
Best Sports Gambling Sites
While you’re at it, look for casinos that offer their software or customer support services in Spanish. Many Spanish people speak Spanish as their native language, though a small portion of the population of Spain speak Catalan. It is far easier to find an online casino that supports the Spanish language than one that supports Catalan. But the good news is, many international casino websites do offer Spanish software or customer service. With so many online casinos catering to Spanish players, it doesn’t make sense to stumble through another language or struggle to use another currency.
The Future of Online Casinos in Spain
For the first time since gambling was decriminalized in 1977 and then again in 1981, there have been big changes to Spanish online gambling law, and more are on their way.
The Spanish Council of Ministers is working on legislation that is being fast-tracked through the Spanish political system to put laws in place that build a tax plan for all online bets. These laws will also outline the legal framework for Spain’s casino gambling licensing system, a guide for casino operators that want to earn casino gambling licensing or work directly with Spanish gamblers.
Like pro-gambling legislation in other countries, these new laws are designed to protect minors and problem gamblers; this was required to get the law through the more conservative areas of the Spanish government.
Already, one land based Spanish casino operator (Gran Madrid) has earned the first online operator license from Spain, a feat they accomplished in May of 2011. The next step for the Spanish government will be to launch an IPO in 2012 to privatize their national public lottery, providing additional tax revenue of €6 billion to help put a dent in the national debt. We can only assume that an IPO for the new Spanish casino gambling venture can follow.
Spanish Gambling Sites List
The Spanish government was uncomfortable with what it called a “legal vacuum” that online gambling operated in, the same legal vacuum that online gambling occupies in North America. Without a legal framework in place to control online gambling in Spain, the Spanish government was essentially allowing unregulated gambling to take place. Other world governments would be smart to follow Spain’s example.