Over 70+ New Operators Approved in Sweden

Although the newly regulated Swedish online gambling market has been live for only two and a half months, gambling operators have been showing huge interest in ing the liberalized market.

Since Spelinspektionen, Swedish gambling authority, officially opened the market back on January 1 of this year…

…and in this short amount of time, a total number of 73 gambling operators were granted licenses!

Exceeding Expectations

Some of the largest gambling companies like GVC Holdings, Stars Group, LeoVegas, Unibet, Bet365, and Betsson Group among others have gained licenses to operate in the Swedish online market.

Each week, Spelinspektionen, has been giving out new licenses and it seems like the interest doesn’t seem to recede. Many of Europe’s largest gambling operators have obtained the Swedish license.

Sweden’s gambling market, before the changes were introduced this year, has been under the complete state’s ownership. Gambling operators that didn’t have the license to operate in Sweden nevertheless accepted customers from the nation…

…but weren’t doing so legally, of course.

During 2018, foreign gambling websites ed for 29% of Sweden’s 2.5 billion gambling market, which is a 24% rise comparing to the previous year.

New Gambling Laws

Now, after regulating the gambling market, the country has more control over it…

…and its great expansion over the past few months is just showing that the country is on a good track.

But, the laws are strict and the Swedish gambling authority is ready to seriously punish those who don’t obey the rules by even completely removing them from the market.

When it comes to taxes, operators are taxed at 18% of their profits and the government plans on monitoring the collection of taxes pretty closely…

…since the analysis is showing that Sweden is going towards budget deficit this year.

Also, there is a clause in the new gambling law that all licensed operators have to protect players from excessive gambling. So, they need to respect the self-exclusion rule and they need to monitor players and warn those who play excessively to limit their bet amounts.

On the other hand, operators are allowed to give out bonuses only when a player enters their website for the first time. They can’t give out additional bonuses to the customers that are not placing their wagers on their websites for the first time.

Spelinspektionen also has the right to ask the operator to block payments from certain gamblers.

Svenska Spel Continues its Operations

Although there are now over 70 approved operators in Sweden, Svenska Spel, the state-owned gambling company, will continue to operate as well.

CEO of Svenska Spel said in an interview that he believes that only 5-10 operators will stay in the market in the future.

“Things will fall into place in the coming one to three years. I find it hard to believe there will be 70 companies in the future, as this business is driven by volumes,” CEO, Patrik Hofbauer, said.

Source:

“70+ Operators Approved Under Sweden’s Newly Liberalized Gambling Market”, Zoltan Tundik, europeangaming.eu, March 10, 2019.