Sweden’s gaming market has opened for business with 60 operators now running at full blast and the official regulator rebranding itself as the Spelinspektionen. The launch was preceded by abundant TV ads from established brands, such as LeoVegas, Betsson, and more.
Swedish Gaming Market Now Fully Operational
At the turn of the year, two things immediately happened in Sweden – the sky was lit in fireworks and the country’s online casinos became fully operational. The building of Casino Cosmopol in Malmö looked somewhat cold and deserted in anticipation of the changes.
With a rebranded national regulator going by the name of Spelinspektionen (to reflect the broader reach of the body), the market launched officially on January 1, 2019. A total of 60 companies are already present in the country with their various brands, casinos, and card rooms. GVC Holdings, for example, has already successfully launched bwin and partypoker, two distinguished brands for sports betting and poker respectively.
GVC Holdings was of course among the first to obtain proper licensing, allowing it to adapt the quickest to the upcoming favorable changes. True to their nature, bwin.se will again work across the known verticals, including regular and live betting whereas partypoker.se will focus on providing gamers with opportunities to examine different versions of real poker and general gaming.
Launching two new labels in such a short space of time after receiving our license, demonstrates the flexibility of our unique proprietary technology platform – GVC COO Shay Segev
The move was well-met by the top brass at GVC Holdings, with Shay Segev, the COO, who has outlined the strength of the company and its go-getting attitude.
Apart from casinos entering the market, there has been a strong push from iGaming companies such as Microgaming to supply a number of facilities with top-shelf video slots and other popular gaming products, such as table games and video poker (not to be confused with Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo and so forth.)
Microgaming’s active partnerships presently include:
- Bet365
- LeoVegas
- Unibet
- Betsson Group
- ComeOn by Cherry
- PokerStars
Even card rooms such as PokerStars are beginning to experiment with a small selection of hand-picked titles in order to diversify the experience. Microgaming’s Andrew Clucas has made a statement via the company’s official UK-facing website, outlining Sweden as a strategic market for the company:
This move continues our strategic expansion in key regulated markets, working closely with regulators and supporting operators as they grow their offering with our diverse portfolio of content built with player protection in mind.
Spelinspektionen has also managed to issue three last-minute licenses, adding Hero Gaming, AhaWorld, and White Hat Gaming to the fraternity of licensed operators. White Hat Gaming is a white-label service, using their own license to run services for a number of other companies. Estimated 24 websites will be running this way, endorsed and developed by White Hat, including:
- Spinrider.com
- Casimba.com
- Dreamjackpot.com
- 666casino.com
- 21casino.com
Spelinspektionen has so far found every company that has applied to meet the required regulatory standards and be part of the fast-developing online gambling industry.