Wildz Group CEO reveals ambitious Finland plans after securing licence
As the group celebrates the news of being granted a Finnish gambling license, Wildz CEO Sam Brown is clear-eyed on the work ahead to fulfil grand ambitions.
Wildz Group was told last week it had been granted a licence to operate in Finland’s new online gambling market come 2027, the first operator to publicly announce licence approval.
Finland is undergoing a major gambling regulatory reform that will see the Nordic country liberalise its monopoly, opening online gaming up to private operators for the first time on 1 July 2027.
Around 80 companies have applied for licences so far. Wildz and Hippos ATG have been the first to announce licence approval, with more decisions expected soon as it approaches eight months since the application window opened.
Sitting down with iGB, Brown outlines the group’s ambitions in the Finnish market, which the CEO says will form a core part of its strategy to grow its regulated market footprint going forward.
Wildz aims to launch 11 brands in Finland
Wildz is based in Malta and operates a handful of different brands, most of them casino-focused. It currently operates its flagship Wildz Casino brand in Germany’s regulated market.
Brown describes the Finnish licence as a “big win” and says it forms part of the group’s long-term strategy to focus on markets that are 100% locally regulated or on the path to being so.
With one Finnish licence already under its belt, he reveals the group intends to apply for further licences as it wants to launch all 11 of its brands in the country.
“Now that we’ve been successful with one licence, we will likely also apply for several more because we will enter the market with all 11 of our brands,” Brown says. “It’s not fully confirmed yet, but highly likely we’ll split the brands up into a few different pots and spread a few of them across multiple licences.”
Brown suggests this strategy would help manage risk and opens the window for M&A down the line.
‘Casino-focused market’
By running a multi-brand business, Wildz hopes to win a good chunk of market share. He talks up the synergies between Finland’s market – which he has been studying closely – and Wildz’s business model, which may partly explain the group’s keenness to invest in the Nordic country.
Brown says there is a strong product-market fit, noting they plan to launch a couple of sportsbook products, but the focus will very much be on casino.
“It’s a very casino-focused market, and we’re a very casino-focused business, so we see it fitting in that sense. [It’s] very slots-focused, and our business profile has always been very much towards slots rather than verticals like live casino and so on, which are a bit less popular in Finland.”
“We don’t want to go in guns blazing, spraying money around; we’ve seen how that goes historically”
Wildz will be competing against an array of operators from different backgrounds, some of whom have been active in Finland’s grey market for a long time. Joint venture operator Hippos ATG, which has plans to revitalise the horse racing sector, has previously told iGB it expects casino to be the most competitive vertical.
Meanwhile, current monopoly operator Veikkaus – which has also applied for a licence to continue operating online gaming – will have an inherent advantage given its existing customer base and brand recognition among online and offline players.
Brown emphasises the need to approach the market sensibly and maturely. “We don’t want to go in kind of guns blazing, spraying money around; we’ve seen how that goes historically when markets open,” he says.
“It only takes a few idiots before the regulator needs to change tack and apply very strict advertising rules. So I think the sustainable way in is to go in in a measured way, find your position in the market and try to offer players the best experience you can.”
Wildz building in-house for Finland
Wildz is building its technology stack in-house for its Finland operations in order to ensure its products are tailored to the local market. With ambitions to launch 11 different customer-facing brands, that is a big task. But Brown does not underestimate the scale of the work ahead.
“We don’t want to give them a watered-down .com product”
“We’re fully proprietary here, so we’re building everything. We’re literally building 11 .fi products, so it’s a daunting amount of work ahead. We’re on track, and as I say, we want to give the Finnish players the best possible product experience.
“We don’t want to give them a watered-down .com product with bits removed and filters and blocks and things. Instead, we’ve studied the process, we’ve studied what is expected from the National Police Board in terms of a compliant and enjoyable product, and for us to do that, the best way is to build it from the bottom up.”
“So yes, we’ve got a big chunk of work ahead, but we’re hoping that by doing so, we’ll enter with an industry-leading product that players can really enjoy, and something that we’re proud of within the rules and regulations of the market.”