Key Points
- The Finnish NPB has received 75 gambling licence applications until September 2026, significantly exceeding the 40-60 range that had been predicted by researcher Janne Nikkinen.
- Veikkaus achieved sales revenue of €936.3m with nearly 2.7 million registered customers in 2025.
- With no formal application deadline but a six-month processing target, operators planning to trade from day one face a self-imposed practical cut-off before the end of 2026.
Finland set out to build an orderly, regulated gambling market. Seventy-five licence applications later, the orderly part is worth revisiting.
The National Police Board (NPB) of Finland has received 75 licence applications for gambling prior to the competitive market opening in the country on 1 July 2027. The above-mentioned number came almost three months after the total was around 50 and easily exceeded the range between 40 and 60 applications predicted by University of Helsinki researcher Janne Nikkinen earlier. As per Nikkinen, the authorities are very satisfied with such a number of licence applicants and there is no worry about market saturation among the authorities. Off the record, the issue of market saturation emerged even when there were only 50 applications.
From 24 to 50 to 75, With No Sign of Stopping
The application window opened on 1 March 2026. A freedom-of-information request filed shortly after found 24 submissions by the end of March. The June update from the NPB confirmed 50, a figure that had already reached the upper end of what many industry observers had expected as the eventual total once the market went live, not the pre-launch total. Now, three months further into the process, that count has reached 75, with no approvals issued yet and no deadline in sight.
These figures refer to applications and not approved operators. The NPB hasn’t officially revealed all the names of those who applied, while some multifunctional organisations have been reported to have made multiple applications. One company, LeoVegas, which was reportedly applying for two gambling licences in Finland, had its Nordic Managing Director, Fredrik Wastenson, reveal its involvement at the NEXT Summit Valletta 2026. This is relevant to the understanding of the figure used in the headline since it doesn’t mean that there are 75 distinct companies.
What Veikkaus Revenue Tells the Market?
Operator interest at this scale needs a reason, and Veikkaus provides one. Finland’s state-owned gambling group recorded actual sales revenue of €936.3m in 2025, with nearly 2.7 million registered customers by year-end. That is close to half of Finland’s 5.7 million population carrying an active account with a single operator, before any private competitor has been permitted to run a single game. The consumer base is already built. Operators are not arriving to create demand; they are arriving to compete for it.
The same figures read differently from a competitive standpoint. Veikkaus is not a weakened incumbent. Its iGaming division alone generated €292.4m in 2025, according to the group’s own results release, and the company is already restructuring itself into separate monopoly and competitive-market subsidiaries ahead of July 2027. It has applied for licences of its own, both to retain its exclusive lottery position and to compete in the open market for betting, online casino and online slots. There are also reports it may be considering a public listing, though this remains unconfirmed. Any operator expecting a fractured incumbent will need to recalibrate.
The €29,000 Commitment and What It Covers
Each gambling licence application requires a non-refundable processing fee of €29,000, paid before the NPB begins its formal review, regardless of the outcome. The gambling game licence covers fixed-odds betting, virtual betting, online casino, online slots and online cash bingo. A separate game software licence, which opens for applications in January 2027, will be available specifically for B2B suppliers.
Juha Katainen, Senior Adviser at the NPB, confirmed that most applicants are international companies, noting that “the complexity of processing and evaluating applications is affected by the fact that the majority of applicants are foreign.” The review goes beyond basic registration; it covers corporate structures, financial standing and anti-money laundering controls across multiple jurisdictions. With 75 applications now in the queue and more expected, the NPB’s caseload has already exceeded its own prior planning assumptions.
By comparison, neighbouring Sweden has issued 89 licences, as reported by Nikkinen, despite having a population roughly twice the size of Finland. On a relative basis, Finland’s application count is tracking at a pace that raises genuine questions about how many of the 75 will ultimately receive approval, and how many will find the market worth entering once they do.
No Deadline, But the Maths Is Clear
There is no formal cut-off date for submitting a licence application. The NPB has confirmed the process is continuous. The current processing target sits at approximately six months, and the regulator has explicitly asked applicants to stop chasing status updates, noting that enquiries divert staff away from evaluation work.
The practical implication is straightforward. An operator submitting in January 2027 faces uncertainty about whether a decision will arrive before or after the 1 July market launch. Those planning to trade from opening day face a self-imposed pressure to apply before the end of 2026. The NPB itself noted back in June that applicants should factor the six-month processing window into their planning. No law forces this; the calendar does.
Marketing Restrictions and What Operators Actually Signed Up For
Part of why earlier estimates ran low was the marketing framework attached to Finland’s new Gambling Act. The Act prohibits acquisition bonuses, affiliate marketing and influencer promotions, and limits social media presence to operators’ own accounts on a non-interactive basis. A limited form of bonus game money for established customer relationships is permitted under specific conditions, but the broad promotional arsenal that operators rely on in most European markets is off the table.
Jari Vähänen, Co-Founder and Partner at The Finnish Gambling Consultants, put it plainly: “It is particularly problematic for digital casino operations that affiliate marketing and welcome bonuses are prohibited.” The new Gambling Act also mandates that marketing volume, scope, visibility and frequency must be moderate, with the National Supervisory Authority taking over enforcement responsibility from July 2027. Operators have applied anyway, in growing numbers. That gap between the restriction framework and the application surge is one of the more interesting signals the Finnish data is sending.
Expert Analysis: The Number Is Impressive, But Nobody Has Been Approved Yet
We have been watching European regulated market openings long enough to know that a high application count and a healthy competitive market are not the same thing. The Finnish data is producing the former; the latter remains to be seen.
The strongest factual story here is the sequence: 24 applications by the end of March, 50 by June, 75 by late September, and zero approvals. Antti Koivula, Chief Compliance Officer at Hippos ATG, raised the saturation concern when the count was still at 50, saying: “It’s a rather small country to add a lot of operators into the mix.” That concern does not diminish at 75. Finland’s regulatory framework, built on the same structural foundations as Denmark’s 2012 and Sweden’s 2019 reforms, was designed to channel gambling demand, not maximise competitor headcount.
The more pointed question is one the coverage keeps sidestepping. Operators are paying €29,000 per application into a process whose secondary rules, including detailed responsible gambling obligations and technical requirements, are still being drafted. Industry lawyer Pekka Ilmivalta has said he expects regulatory guidance on implementation “probably in Q1 2027,” three months before the market opens, adding: “There are lots of policies and rules to be drafted, even afterwards.” Operators are not just betting on Finland; they are betting on regulatory clarity arriving in time. That is the part of this story the application count does not tell.
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