Because it promises to open up a raft of new growth opportunities for operators, the news of the intended re-regulation of the Finnish iGaming market was extremely well received by the industry.
But, nevertheless, many believe that this soon-to-be European iGaming hub will only be a success if it manages to find the right balance between market competitiveness and player protection. Fortuitously, there’s a lot that can be learned from their pathfinder Nordic neighbours, friends and family.
We caught up with Gustaf Hoffstedt, General Secretary of The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling , known by its Swedish acronym, BOS, to hear his thoughts on the future of the Finnish iGaming market — and how they can learn from their Scandinavian brethren to create the sustainable growth for their new licensees.
BOS recently reported that the licensed share of Sweden’s regulated online gambling market is declining. Why do you think channelisation is struggling? And what can be done to improve this?
“Sweden is a fairly regulated gambling market. We re-regulated our market back in 2019 and our government and parliament wisely decided to set up a channelisation goal. I believe that is crucial for any licensing and gambling system. The Swedish goal was set to 90 percent for the acceptable share of Swedish consumers gambling within the national licensing system.
“After 2019, we had a great start but then very quickly it began to show worrying signs of decline. We recently proved via a survey we commissioned from an independent firm that, as it stands, the channelisation in general is 77 percent and in some specific gambling verticals, the situation is even worse.
