International firms claim 25% market share in Sweden

Swedish regulator Lotteriinspektionen has revealed that international operators are now responsible for around 25% of gambling revenue in the country.

For the nine months through to the end of September, overall gambling revenue amounted to SEK16.5bn (€1.67bn/$1.97bn), an increase of 3% on the previous year.

Swedish-licensed companies are responsible for SEK12.5bn of this total, which is flat on a year-on-year basis, but international operators saw their market share increase 11% to just over SEK4bn.

The results come at an uncertain time for the Swedish market, which faces great change, with state-owned Svenska Spel expected to lose its online gambling monopoly and become privatised.

In the nine-month period, sales at Svenska Spel dropped 1% year-on-year to SEK6.5bn, mainly due to a decline in land-based activity, with revenue from this part of the business down 5% to SEK4.9bn.

However, in contrast, online operations at Svenska Spel climbed 15% to just under SEK1.6bn.

Svenska Spel recently moved to expand its portfolio of betting pool games with the launch of ‘Oddset Challenge’.

The new sports betting pool game pledges to combine the “most attractive daily sporting events and betting types” with the “strength of a betting pool game”, with players able to enter with low stakes and win larger sums of money.

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