‘Veikkaus won’t fail,’ says online EVP, as monopoly prepares to compete in Finland
Speaking to iGB, Jarkko Nordlund, EVP for Veikkaus’ soon-to-be spun-out online business, says he is determined to prove Veikkaus’ doubters wrong.
Nordlund leads the digital business arm that will be spun out to offer products to consumers in Finland’s open gambling market.
“Everyone is waiting for Veikkaus to fail. And it’s my personal mission to prove everyone wrong,” Nordlund says.
Finland’s online market will open to private competitors in January 2027 and the legacy monopoly operator is expecting to secure a leading position when that occurs.
However, Veikkaus has been in a steady decline across both revenue and profit over the last few years, as group revenue (from both its B2C and B2B businesses) fell 7.2% year-on-year in 2024.
Operating profit was also down 19.5% in 2024, but this was partly due to the ongoing investment in its digital business, ahead of the open market launch.
Stakeholders in Finland have argued that Veikkaus has not been able to remain competitive against grey market operators.
To prove itself in its home market, the company has initiated a major technology and product overhaul. Nordlund says it is in the process of transitioning to new PAM, sports betting and CRM platforms.
Nordlund says the company is also working to launch new mobile applications in the coming weeks.
“We have not really activated [our technology and product capabilities], but the competition is fierce,and when [the market] opens we must be very competitive. Our aim is to challenge the mentality of our current position,” he notes.
Attracting experienced industry talent to Veikkaus
Last July, Veikkaus hired former Kindred director Andreas Reimblad to lead its online sportsbook overhaul.
The company has actively been recruiting talent from across the industry to bring experience and knowledge to the digital business.
Its latest hire includes Fatemeh Daneshzadeh, ex-product excellence manager for Kindred. Daneshzadeh joined Veikkaus in April as VP of digital channels.
Nordlund says that although he is looking to recruit further experienced industry folk he is also looking at other entertainment sectors, particularly in television and music, where he joined gaming from.
“We have hand-picked international expertise [from the sector] to come to work for us. Then we are recruiting from Netflix, Bolt and those [kinds of] digital companies,” he says.
The business will ultimately maintain a mix of legacy Veikkaus staffers and new talent, which will encompass all the best parts of the entertainment industry.
This talent acquisition drive follows a warning in September that Veikkaus would be renegotiating the contracts for 620 members of staff. This was in relation to an internal restructuring to prepare the online business to compete against grey market operators.
At the time, Heli Lallukka, EVP of HR, said: “In practice, we are aiming at an operating model through which we can focus on our core business.
“The planned measures would enable us to deal with the changes in Veikkaus’ mission and operating environment, as well as with the changes in the overall gambling sector.”