Sweden Officially Opens Online Market

The newly-regulated online market in Sweden has been officially opened at the start of 2019! Already, 60 companies have been granted a license to offer their products to gambling enthusiasts, but the country’s regulator is expected to approve even more licenses in days to come.

Speaking of the Swedish regulatory body, it has officially been rebranded as the Spelinspektionen.

The market officially launched on January 1st and some operators are already live! One of these operators is…

…GVC Holdings, which already deployed its bwin and PartyPoker brands. The company was among the first one that secured the license alongside Kindred Group.

The bwin.se is going to offer in-play sports betting services but the players will have a chance to engage in a variety of other casino games. On the other hand, PartyPoker.se will, as its name suggests, focus on poker and gaming.

Large Network

“Launching two new labels in such a short space of time after receiving our licence, demonstrates the flexibility of our unique proprietary technology platform,” GVC chief operating officer, Shay Segev, said.

Another company which has started off strongly is Microgaming. They went live with a large number of partners such as bwin, PokerStars, Bet365, Cherry’s ComeOn, Betsson Group, Unibet and LeoVegas.

“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,” Microgaming chief operating officer, Andrew Clucas, said.

New Licenses

After issuing 28 new licenses at the end of 2018, formerly known as Lotteriinspektionen, the Swedish regulatory body has allowed new brands to join the market. These brands include AhaWorld, Hero Gaming and White Hat Gaming.

An online gaming license has been granted to White Hat that will operate a total of 24 white label sites for third-party partners. They will be in control of the domains such as 21casino.com, Casimba.com, Dreamjackpot.com, Spinrider.com and 666casino.com.

The second licensee, AhaWorld got the license for its AhaBingo.com site. Last but not least, Hero’s online gambling and betting license allows the company to provide games via Casinoheroes.com, spweedybet.com, Betser.com and Speedycasino.com.

Speaking of which…

Just before the regulated online market in Sweden got opened, Hero Gaming and Red Tiger Gaming signed an important deal that benefited both brands. According to the agreement…

…Tiger provided their full portfolio of video slots to Hero gaming, therefore equipping the brand with some fine titles ahead of the official market launch in this Scandinavian country.

The deal came right on time and now that Hero’s got the license, the Swedish online market will most certainly be enriched!

The entire process of receiving a license was a long and tiresome one, but the Swedish regulatory body has managed to process a lot of cases thus far. All of the applicants got their licenses approved and the regulator is yet to reject an application.

A large majority of licenses was issued between the end of November and the end of December while some other recipients are GiG, Paf and Paddy Power Betfair.

Source:

“Swedish iGaming market opens for business”, igamingbusiness.com, January 2, 2019.