The latest joint venture in Spain's fast growing betting scene is a five-year deal between Betbull, the betting exchanges, and Spanish operation Orenes Grupo.
The synergy of the partnership, an attempt to liberalize the Spanish market, has to come from Betbull's proven betting expertise and Orenes' deep knowledge of the Spanish leisure and gaming market. The Spanish operator is active in the field of horse race betting, sports betting, casinos, small hotels and recreation projects. It will be responsible for obtaining licenses in Spain's 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities. The autonomous communities are the holders of legislation and administrative competencies for gaming in Spain.
Betbull plc is a joint venture between two of the leading betting and gaming companies: bwin Interactive Entertainment AG and Fun Technologies Plc (formerly traded as CES-Software Plc). The group was established in February 2004 and raised 13 million euro (net of costs) by floating on the Vienna Stock Exchange in October 2004.
Betbull is enjoying the growth opportunities for betting in Europe. According to its management, betting exchanges represent Internet gambling's leading growth sector. The continental European market is largely untapped, and estimates suggest an annual turnover for betting in Continental Europe of between 10 billion and 13 billion euros, generating between 100 million and 130 million eruos in commissions.
Betbull has launched a second betting exchange, www.betbull.de, targeting the German race betting market.
Betbull is currently looking into the expansion of its exchange betting business in other complementary business fields through mergers and acquisitions, particularly targeting other person-to-person applications and other forms of gambling.
Betbull opened one licensed betting shop in Andalusia, Spain in June 2006, followed by two shops in August. The three shops are run by Betbull’s wholly owned Spanish registered subsidiary, Betpoint S.L., and operate under a license granted to E Quiniela by the Government of Andalusia.
Betbull also holds bookmaking and gaming licenses in the United Kingdom, Germany, Malta and Austria.
The Trend
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Foreign Operators
Targeting Spain
Betbull
Miapuesta (Sportingbet)
Interapuestas (Interwetten)
Expekt
Unibet
Globet
Ladbrokes
Eurobet
Gamebookers
10bet
Bet365
Betathome
Pinnacle
Vcbet
Betfair.
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The Spanish joint venture trend started with the marriage between Grupo Recoletos, the Spanish heavyweight publishing and RTV house, and bet365, the British Internet and telephone betting division of the bet365 Group Limited.
The second in line was the joint venture between British betting firm William Hill and Codere, the Spanish gaming company operating in 76 bingo halls across Spain and with more than 30,000 slot machines in bars and amusement arcades. (Codere operates in Italy and South America as well.)
Finally, there is the commercial relationship between Fred Done's Betfred operation (with over 600 shops, 2,500 employees and a turnover in excess of £1.5 billion) and EKASA (Euskal Kirol Apostuak), commencing in 2002 and combining the interests of all the small betting operators in autonomous Basque Country.
According to Juan Barrachina, Unibet's country manager and the president of AEDAPI, the Spanish Internet sports betting association, still another partnership, among Grupo, and Globet and Real Madrid, is in the making. Grupo Comar is internationally active in the: gaming, casinos, bingo salons, real estate and hotel management businesses. Globet International Sports betting Ltd., part of the Globet Group, was founded in 1995 in the United Kingdom with the aim of providing an Internet and telephone sports book and casino to a client base of over 300,000 customers worldwide. The company employs 50 people at its offices in London. Its Web site is in English, Spain, Polish, French, Romanian, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese, German, Greek and Swedish.
Spain has a population of 40 million.