Key Points
- ATG reported a 4% NGR decline to SEK1.3 billion (€117.9 million) for Q2 2026 as horse racing NGR dropped 7% to SEK936 million.
- At the same time, NGR from casinos increased 10% to SEK177 million as horse betting NGR share decreased to 72% from 76%.
- December 2026 brings a change in the CEO position, and the incoming head will inherit a company whose key product is under pressure and whose retail revenue slipped 17%.
Horse racing built ATG. Every product, every profit, every purpose the operator has ever stated traces back to the trotting tracks of Sweden. So a 7% drop in horse betting revenue in a single quarter is not just a bad number; it is a warning about what happens when the product a company was built around starts losing its audience.
That is the story inside ATG’s Q2 2026 results. Net gaming revenue at the Swedish operator dropped 4% year-on-year to SEK1.3 billion (€117.9 million), total revenue falling 3% to SEK1.5 billion while net profit dropped 11% to SEK352 million. Look behind the headlines and there are some segment figures that pose more questions than one quarter’s results can resolve.
Sweden Pulls Back, but International Betting Grows
Horse racing NGR dropped to SEK936m in Q2, down 7% from the same period last year. It still accounts for 72% of all ATG revenue, but that share was 76% in Q2 2025. A four-percentage-point shift in one year is not noise; it is a trend.
The domestic market drove most of the damage. Gross turnover from horse racing betting in Sweden fell 8% to SEK2.93bn, a meaningful retreat in the market ATG knows best. International horse betting moved in the opposite direction, with gross turnover climbing 13% to SEK1.0bn. Total horse betting turnover across both markets settled 4% lower at SEK3.95bn.
Acting CEO Jörgen Forsberg addressed the decline directly. “Horse betting remains the hub of our business and ATG is the engine in financing Swedish horse racing,” he said. It was a statement of commitment, not of confidence; the numbers behind it make that distinction clear.
Taxation is partly behind some of the pressure being faced by horse racing betting in the domestic market. The government of Sweden increased taxes levied on gambling from 18% to 22% in July 2024, which affected the legal industry and put pressure on ATG directly. The company has been contesting the tax, citing that horse racing is a service that supports Swedish races and thus is different from other casino offerings. Despite the claims, taxation policies have remained the same for the company. In addition to taxation pressures, Swedish horse racing faces another challenge; namely, a change in generation.
Casino Growth Is Real, but It Cannot Do What Horse Racing Does
Casino NGR rose 10% to SEK177m in Q2, the only segment in the business moving forward. Sports betting fell 3% to SEK89m, so the casino carried the entire growth side of the ledger on its own.
This is not a one-quarter story. During the first quarter of 2026, revenue generated by the casinos rose by 20%, which was referred to by Forsberg as “the area that is growing”. Throughout the entire first half of 2026, casino NGR revenue increased by 15%, but there were losses in horse racing (down 4%) and sports betting (down 7%).
Denmark is where casino growth is sharpest. Swedish casino NGR held flat at SEK120m in Q2, but ATG’s Danish operations, run under the Bet25 brand, saw casino NGR jump 39% to SEK57m. Danish NGR rose 25% in total to SEK104m, with growth across every product line. Swedish NGR, by contrast, fell 6% to SEK1.2bn. The Denmark numbers matter because they show ATG can grow; the Swedish numbers show how hard that is at home.
What casino growth cannot do, though, is replace horse racing’s structural role. ATG is owned by Svensk Travsport and Svensk Galopp, the Swedish trotting and galloping associations. Every krona ATG earns eventually flows back to those owners and into the sport. Casino revenue counts toward that total, but a business built on horse racing dependency cannot simply pivot to casino without undermining the mission it was created to serve.
Retail’s 17% Drop Is the Number Nobody Is Talking About
Digital channels produced SEK1.21bn of ATG’s total NGR in Q2, down 3%. Retail locations generated SEK97m, a 17% decline in a single quarter. That is a sharp fall, and ATG has not publicly explained what drove it.
Physical betting on horse racing has been contracting across Europe for years. Racecourse windows, high street agents, and betting shops that once anchored the sport’s audience have been losing ground to apps and online platforms. A 17% decline, though, is steeper than typical drift. Higher operating costs at retail locations, the tax environment, and customers moving to digital channels are all likely contributors, but the scale of the drop suggests the shift is happening faster than ATG’s retail network can absorb.
H1 Profit Held Up, Thanks to Cost Cuts
The Q2 figures hurt, but a stronger Q1 kept the half-year picture from looking worse. For the six months to the end of June, NGR fell just 2% to SEK2.52bn and total revenue dipped 1% to SEK2.89bn. Operating profit rose 2% to SEK687m and pre-tax profit also climbed 2% to SEK693m.
Improvement in profit was achieved through cost efficiency rather than revenue gains. Costs incurred without gambling taxes dropped by 1.7% year on year. During H1 2026, ATG made payments totalling SEK607m towards taxation. According to CFO Lotta Nilsson, ATG is not pleased with its revenue performance, but the reduction in costs and profitability indicates that the firm can run efficiently amidst challenges. Comprehensive net income stood at SEK668m, which is 2% up from SEK652m in H1 2025.
“Competition for customers’ time, attention and disposable income remains high,” Forsberg said. “It comes from both other gaming operators, licensed and unlicensed, and from an ever-increasing range of other digital services and experiences. It is up to us to offer attractive products within the framework of a safe and responsible gaming market.”
A New CEO Walks Into a Business at a Crossroads
Anna Romboli, formerly vice president of Svenska Spel Tur, was confirmed as ATG’s incoming CEO in June 2026 and takes over in December. Her background spans lottery operations, senior roles at NetEnt, and branding work, a profile built around digital product and commercial growth rather than horse racing’s pari-mutuel world.
She takes over with the background set against her predecessor’s resignation in February 2026 due to a disagreement on company strategy. Hasse Lord Skarplöth had been at the helm for 13 years prior to this. Forsberg has kept the company on an even keel since then, but Q2 figures show that “even” does not mean growing.
ATG is also watching Finland closely. The operator’s Hippos ATG joint venture is preparing for the Finnish market, expected to open to private operators in 2027. International expansion may be the best near-term answer to the domestic pressure on horse betting, but Romboli will need to move quickly once she settles in.
Expert Analysis
ATG’s Q2 results put numbers to a tension that has been building for years. The business exists to fund Swedish horse racing, but horse racing is the segment losing ground fastest. Casino is growing, Denmark is growing, and the cost base is being managed well, but none of that resolves the core problem: ATG’s ownership structure and public mission tie it to a product whose domestic audience is shrinking. Romboli arrives in December with a commercial and digital background that may suit a business trying to compete for leisure spend across multiple products. Whether that background can also protect and grow the horse betting revenue that funds the very sport ATG was created to serve is the question her first year will start to answer.
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