New Online Gambling Licenses Issued in Sweden

Sweden has introduced its first online gambling licenses and there have already been 16 recipients. The announcement came on Friday by Lotteriinspektionen regulatory body, which is expected to be rebranded starting 2019 as Spelinspektionen.

In the meantime, the licenses will become active on January 1, 2019.

According to Camilla Rosenberg, the body’s director-general, this has been a “historic day for the game.” She praised her staff for working under extreme pressure as the company has received 95 gambling license applications since August 1…

…70 of which have been for online gambling!

Some of the license receivers include Svenska Spel and AB Trav & Galopp which are finally allowed to offer their online casino products to the people in Sweden. They weren’t able to do so under the previous regulatory regime and they have lots of reasons to celebrate.

More Licensed

The other notable receivers of the new license in Sweden include some suppliers which are already licensed internationally. For instance, Kindred Group will operate using several of its brands such as Unibet and Maria. Furthermore, there is a reason to celebrate…

…in the headquarters of mobile casino specialists such as LeoVegas and Betsson as they managed to get the licenses for its Nordicbet and Sverigeautomated brands

Some big names got permission to place their products online in this Scandinavian country. The familiar names that rejoiced upon hearing the news on Friday include Interwetten, Tombola, SuprPlay Ltd and Skill on Net.

Three operators (Casumo, LeoVegas and GVC) out of all the ones that are mentioned here, will have to extend their licenses after two years…

…which the other ones were granted the standard 5-year permits.

According to Resenberg, the companies which got 2-year deals were cases “where we estimate that we need to follow the company extra carefully,” in part due to “past offenses in other markets.”

Did you know?

These reason why these operators have received their license on two years only is because they have been fined by the UK Gambling Commission earlier in the year. While GVC and LeoVegas got the penalty for misleading ments and bonus offers…

…Casumo received a ticket for failing to protect its customers from gambling harm.

Even though almost every big brand applied for the online license in the Swedish market many of the names were absent without particular reason when the list was announced on Friday. The operations manager of the regulatory body Patrik Gustavsson said that…

…the remaining applicants that submitted their application in a timely manner will learn whether they got the license or not “over the next few weeks, depending on the complexity of the case.”

Major Swedish Operator To Be Purchased?

And while suppliers are preparing for the newly-issued licenses in Sweden, Britain’s William Hill considers purchasing renowned Swedish company called Mr. Green. This would be a major move for the Brits as they look to expand before Brexit takes place.

Source:

“Sweden issues first batch of new online gambling licenses”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, November 30, 2018.