ATG signs up NetEnt and Yggdrasil for online casino launch
Swedish horseracing betting operator ATG has ramped up its customer offering by signing new deals with Yggdrasil and NetEnt as it prepares to offer online gaming for the first time.
ATG, which was founded as the Swedish Horse Racing Totalisator Board in 1974, will be able to offer more than just its core racing and trotting product from January when it will enter the wider market along with dozens of newly-licensed rivals.
As well as offering sports betting it is also compiling an extensive portfolio of online casino games and slots in time for the day of market opening on January 1 thanks to the new deals with NetEnt and Yggdrasil. It has already announced Kambi as its sports betting platform provider.
“Our ambition at ATG is to create a responsible and exciting casino experience with long-lasting relations to our customers,” said Mikael Bäcke, chief product and business development officer at ATG.
Both Yggdrasil and NetEnt have backed ATG – which has around two million customers – to make a success of its launch in the reregulated market, with the company having filed its licence application at the beginning of August.
Fredrik Elmqvist, CEO of Yggdrasil, said ATG is “one of Sweden’s most respected operators who have a large, loyal and dedicated customer base”.
Henrik Fagerlund, chief product officer at NetEnt, said: “ATG has a very strong brand in Sweden, and with our experience in online casino and regulated markets I am confident that we can support ATG in their ambitions to grow outside of horse racing.”
In its annual report for 2017, ATG chief executive Hans Skarplöth (pictured) recently outlined the company’s ambitions within the new market.
“Since 2011, we have actively lobbied for equal terms in the licence market,” he said. “We know that of every hundred kronor currently spent on betting by our customers, ATG’s products account for SEK 24 and other betting products for the remaining SEK 76.
“For us, the new licence market means that we will release our monopoly on betting on horse racing but in return be given an opportunity to develop completely new products and start to battle for the other SEK 76. That’s good.”
The company generated betting turnover of SEK 13.65bn ($1.51bn / €1.31bn) in 2017, up almost 3% year-on-year.
ATG is owned by the national trotting and thoroughbred racing associations, with 90% by the Swedish Trotting Association and 10% by Swedish Jockey Club. Its profits are used to benefit Sweden's racing industry.