Buy-side acquisition · Spain
Buy a Gaming License in Spain — DGOJ-licensed operators
Spain regulates online gambling nationally through the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) under Law 13/2011 of 27 May, and general licenses are issued only through public tenders that open rarely. Between tenders there is exactly one way into the market: acquire a company that already holds the license. That share purchase is the transaction Cadena Brokers structures, for the buyer alone.
Why Spain
A closed-tender market where the license itself is the scarce asset
The DGOJ sits within Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda and administers the framework of Law 13/2011, the statute that converted a patchwork of regional rules into a single national licensing regime for online play. The structural fact an acquirer needs to understand is the tender calendar. General licenses have been offered three times since the law passed: 2011, 2014 and 2018. The statute obliges the ministry to leave at least eighteen months between tenders, but nothing obliges it to open one at all, and no fourth window has been called. A greenfield entry plan for Spain is therefore a plan to wait indefinitely.
The market behind that closed door is one of Europe’s largest regulated online gambling economies, taxed at 20% of gross gaming revenue (10% for operators established in Ceuta or Melilla, a deliberate fiscal incentive that several major groups have taken up). Demand is deep, channelisation is high, and the DGOJ enforces actively against unlicensed supply.
Royal Decree 958/2020 closed nearly every mass-market advertising channel: broadcast spots confined to a narrow late-night window, sponsorship of shirts and stadia banned, welcome bonuses for new customers prohibited. Most commentary files this under deterrent. We read it the other way. An incumbent with an established customer database faces no advertising arms race from new entrants, because the new entrant cannot buy a license and could not advertise at scale if it had one. The decree is a moat around exactly the asset we broker.
Scope
What a Spanish gaming license permits
Spanish authorisation comes in two layers. A general license covers one of three statutory categories (betting, contests, or “other games” — the category that includes casino) and runs for ten years. Beneath it, each individual game type the operator offers requires its own singular license under Article 11 of Law 13/2011: slots, roulette, blackjack, poker, baccarat, bingo, fixed-odds sports betting and the rest, each granted for renewable terms of up to five years. A typical acquisition target holds the “other games” general license plus a stack of singular licenses matching its casino product, or the betting general license with sports verticals, and the larger operators hold both.
Statutory mechanics a buyer prices in: the licensed entity must maintain at least EUR 100,000 in paid-up share capital, post financial guarantees sized to cover player balances and outstanding obligations to the treasury, and operate Spanish-facing play through the mandated .es domain with player verification wired into the DGOJ’s central systems. Licenses do not transfer. The DGOJ must instead be notified of changes in the shareholding of the licensee, which is why every entry we see is structured as a share deal with the notification prepared alongside the purchase agreement.
Supervision keeps tightening, which favours well-run incumbents. In August 2025 the regulator published a standardised mechanism for detecting at-risk gambling behaviour that will bind all licensees, and a draft royal decree now in consultation tightens anti-money-laundering controls ahead of Spain’s 2026 FATF evaluation (one provision requires the holder of any deposit instrument to match the holder of the gaming account). Diligence on a Spanish target is largely diligence on how cleanly it already runs these systems.
Our book
What we broker in Spain
Our Spanish mandates centre on licensed operators with live general and singular licenses, a compliant RD 958/2020 marketing posture, and settled GGR-tax history. Typical acquirers are international groups that missed the 2018 window, EU operators converting grey-adjacent Spanish traffic into licensed revenue, and investors who want a regulated southern-European position with a 10% Ceuta or Melilla tax base already in place. Before a target reaches your shortlist it has cleared our three diligence gates: regulatory standing with the DGOJ, banking continuity through closing, and an AML programme whose key people stay on after completion. Entity names stay behind NDA until a mandate is signed.
Process
How the acquisition runs
You brief us on product mix, capital envelope and operating plan; we present matched, pre-vetted Spanish targets under NDA. Diligence and negotiation run against the regulatory calendar, with the DGOJ shareholder-change notification prepared in parallel with the share-purchase agreement rather than after it. Closings are expedited because the vetting work is already done. The full four-step sequence is on our process page.
Why Cadena
The buy-side broker for regulated licences
- One mandate, yours. We act for acquirers only. When a Spanish seller’s counsel pushes back on warranties, there is no listing relationship pulling us toward their side of the table.
- Tender-calendar realism. We track the DGOJ’s regulatory pipeline so you are not paying an acquisition premium for an asset a fourth tender might dilute, and not waiting for a window that may never open.
- Banking survives the closing. Spanish gambling accounts and PSP relationships are verified to transfer with the entity, because a license without payments is a filing cabinet.
FAQ
Spain gaming license: acquirer questions
Can you buy an online casino license in Spain?
Not directly. Spanish licenses are non-transferable and new general licenses only issue through public tenders, the last of which closed in 2018. What you buy is the company that holds the licenses. Cadena maintains a book of DGOJ-licensed operators whose shareholders are open to a sale, each pre-vetted for regulatory standing and banking continuity, and we present matched targets under NDA.
Is online gambling legal in Spain?
Yes, under Law 13/2011, provided the operator holds the relevant DGOJ general and singular licenses and serves Spanish players through its licensed .es platform. Unlicensed supply is actively pursued, with payment blocking and substantial sanctions. Legality at the operator level is precisely what makes the licensed entity an asset worth acquiring.
How do you get a Spain online casino license?
The greenfield route requires a general license from a public tender plus singular licenses per game, and no tender has opened since 2018. The practical route is acquiring an operator that already holds both layers, then notifying the DGOJ of the change in shareholding. For most entrants that is not the faster path; it is the only path currently available.
When is the next DGOJ license tender?
No tender has been announced, and the ministry is under no statutory obligation to call one. Law 13/2011 only fixes a minimum gap of eighteen months between tenders. Three have been held since the law passed (2011, 2014, 2018). Acquirers who structured share purchases rather than waiting have entered the market in every year since; those waiting for a fourth window are still waiting.
How much does a Spanish gambling license cost?
Think in layers rather than one number: the statutory minimum of EUR 100,000 in paid-up share capital, financial guarantees covering player balances, GGR tax at 20% (10% from Ceuta or Melilla), and the operating cost of Spanish-facing compliance. Acquisition pricing for the licensed company itself then turns on its revenue, product scope and banking. We model the all-in position per target during diligence.
Next step
Acquire a DGOJ-licensed operator
Tell us your product mix and capital envelope. We respond with matched, pre-vetted Spanish targets under NDA, and we act for you alone.
Send an acquisition brief
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Also weighing other gaming jurisdictions? Compare the Malta MGA route and the Italian ADM market, or start from the Cadena Brokers homepage.
