Key Points
- The National Police Board in Finland told us that no less than 12 of the 79 applications they received were given the green light, with no rejections in sight.
- Just to confuse things a bit though, the 12 names on that list belong to legal entities so we can’t say for certain how many actual brands or operator groups have been given a licence.
- But one question does stick out, where’s Veikkaus? The giant of the Finnish gaming industry and a state monopoly to boot, you’d expect to see it on that list, especially considering those advertising and enforcement rules that are set to come into play on 1 July 2027.
It’s now been a couple of months since we first got wind of Finland’s first gambling licence figures but digging deeper into the numbers shows that there’s more to the story than it seems. The National Police Board told iGB they’d had 79 applications, approved 12 and didn’t reject a single one, but they only broke the news with an info request rather than going public. To make matters worse, just a day after the announcement, three more companies piped up to say they’d received their licence, making it all the more confusing. With the Finnish licensed market set to launch on 1 July 2027, there are still plenty of questions out there that need answering.
So What Did the Regulator Actually Confirm?
The list of 12 entities approved by the regulator might look impressive, but that’s just part of the story, it’s not 12 brands and it’s not 12 separate operator groups. It’s a list of legal entities, including Hippos ATG Oy, Skill On Net Ltd and SuomiVeto Oy, plus Granturo Finland Ltd which is linked to Wildz Group, and then there’s ComeOn, which we were told had a confirmed licence, yet no legal entity with that name is on the list. To put it simply, operator groups, legal entities and consumer brands all add up to one different count so it’s hard to get to the bottom of this one.
Veikkaus, The Big Name That Got Away?
Veikkaus, Finland’s state-owned gaming monopoly, is the one name that sticks out by its absence from the list, even though it did apply for a licence. This time last year Veikkaus had a customer database of half a million people and a household name, which is no mean feat. Its revenues have taken a hit though, last year they were down to €931 million from a peak of €1.8 billion back in 2017. To put it bluntly, Veikkaus reckons it still owned 51% of the market going into 2026.
Jarkko Nordlund, Veikkaus head of casino and sportsbook, is already talking up his company’s ambitions.
Hippos ATG, The First To Break Through?
Hippos ATG, a joint venture between ATG in Sweden and Finnish racing organisation Suomen Hippos, were the first to let everyone know they’d been given the go-ahead for a licence. And what’s more, they were given a five-year licence, shown off in a picture that was shared on social media. “Getting the approval was the first step to making this happen,” said its boss, Mikael Bäcke. It seems that getting the approval is only the beginning, though. Hippos ATG also reckons they can make a real difference to Finnish racing with their returns, a full 60% of their profits will go to equestrian sport and breeding.
Three Licences Obtained, One Open Question
On 27 October, one day after the regulator’s announcement, Nordplay Group, 7bet and SkillOnNet announced that they have obtained the necessary licences. The legal entity of SkillOnNet, Skill On Net Ltd, is already a part of the twelve companies named in the regulator’s list. However, the regulator has not yet confirmed which companies are linked to the licence holders Nordplay and 7bet. Until this information becomes public, the three subsequent announcements do not prove that the number of licensed entities has exceeded twelve.
Nicolas Lund, COO of Nordplay, admitted that there are still some questions regarding the new system.
Why So Many Want In?
According to H2 Gambling Capital, in 2026 the gross gaming revenue in Finland will amount to €1.9 billion. The share of the online segment is estimated to be around 81% in 2026. At the same time, Veikkaus will preserve the monopoly on the lottery market, valued at €456 million, and gaming machines. Thus, the market will be more competitive than before.
The number of applications has grown from 24 in March up to 50 in June and to 75 applications on 22 September. 4 more applications were submitted by 26 October; however, there is no deadline for submitting an application set by the regulator. The application for obtaining the licence costs €29,000 in 2026, and the police charge this fee independently of the outcome of the procedure. In case all 79 applicants pay for their applications, the nominal amount will reach €2.291 million, although the regulator has not yet revealed how much money it has collected.
The level of interest is obvious, but the number of applications does not show the number of different companies interested in entering the market, as one company may submit several applications, and, according to industry sources, there was an expectation that there would be around 40 to 50 licensees.
How a Monopoly Came to an End?
Finland’s Parliament passed the Gambling Act on 16 December 2025 and the president Alexander Stubb signed it on 16 January. According to the European Gaming and Betting Association, Finland has become the last EU country to introduce the multi-licence system. Even Veikkaus itself supported the end of its monopoly, together with the majority of the parties in the parliament.
Velipekka Nummikoski, Deputy CEO at Veikkaus explained the matter openly in December 2025.
What Should Be Done Before 1 July 2027?
Getting a licence doesn’t entitle the operator to go live before this date. The operator is prohibited from starting its operations until 1 July 2027. The pre-launch activities that should be done include an audit and the setting up of a mandatory connection to the regulator’s supervisory system. Starting from 1 July 2027, the Finnish Supervisory Agency is going to license and supervise operators. The gross gaming revenue taxes for operators are going to be 22%, and the annual supervision fees will range from €4,000 to €434,000.
It is expected that the advertising restrictions are going to cause the biggest debates as operators are getting ready to launch in Finland. Advertising via TV, radio, and newspapers is allowed. The use of influencers and telephone direct marketing is prohibited. In addition, affiliates are going to be excluded, according to a legal analysis conducted by Nordic Law. Antti Koivula of Hippos ATG states that this solution has a significant drawback. “Affiliates are not going to disappear; they are going to boost the black market,” he explained. The industry report which was published in June 2026 anticipated advertising and bonus rules in Q1 2027.
Enforcement is one of the other concerns since there isn’t much of a record under the current legislation which shows how actively the authorities would go after unlicensed operators. iGB’s freedom of information request has revealed zero prohibition orders against unlicensed operators in the last twelve months. At the same time, fourteen hearing letters have been received, ten for individuals and four for operators. This data refers to the current legislation, so it can’t say how the new regime would work. In April, Finnish gambling consultant Jari Vähänen summarised this situation. “The key question is how active the regulator is going to be,” he commented.
Player protection recommendations aren’t legally binding, but operators are worried about the fact that the regulator would require them to adhere to these recommendations.
Expert Analysis: Zero Rejections Raises More Questions Than It Answers
We reckon zero rejections tells us much more about what Finland’s new licensing system hasn’t revealed than anything else. After all, the €29,000 application fee is there regardless of outcome so some pretty weak applications just may have decided to give it a miss. Not to mention, 67 applications just have a big fat “no decision” stamped on them. And you’d have to be pretty sharp to figure out how the regulator is going to handle those files, that’s where the real story is at.
We think there’s a good chance that advertising rules are going to have a much bigger say in how things go once the market opens for business. You see, affiliates and influencers get shut out, while TV, radio and newspaper ads are still fair game for the operators with the cash to splash out on them. That’s a pretty big advantage for the companies that can afford to do so, and Veikkaus is about to muscle in on the action with all that brand recognition they’ve built up. But the head of Veikkaus, Nordlund, is having none of it, reckons its rivals will just have to get creative with their marketing. Maybe he’s onto something.
But then there’s the way the Swedish operator is handling enforcement, says consultant Jari Vähänen. In Sweden, it turns out that just about every single punishment or court case from the regulator was aimed at licence holders, and if Finland is following that same playbook, then the licensed brands are likely to be the ones on the hook for any first enforcement action after July 1st 2027. Which might say more about the system than all 12 issued licences put together. And when that first move comes, will it be a black market site, or one of the newly licensed “A teams” who just celebrated?
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