European gambling market perspectives: gambling in Sweden (part1)

The Swedish gambling industry has made a considerable growth in the past 2 year creating one of the most profitable European gambling markets

The Swedish gambling market is one of the European gambling markets that made huge progress in the past three years, beside the economic crisis that shook Europe and the world in general. While the numbers from their land-based gambling are falling down in the past three years, the online gambling in Sweden took an increasing trend with international companies having a great role in the business. Many, as gambling news report, find these performances especially peculiar, knowing the state oligopoly on gambling present in Sweden.

As it is widely known, Svenska Spel is the alfa and omega in the Swedish gambling while ATG regulates the horse betting. Under the Casino Cosmopol brand Svenska Spel are the sole land based casino operator in the country. On the online sphere there is a small diversity, with Svenska Spel, having a monopoly on the online poker and online bingo in Sweden. The past performances of the Swedish gambling market and the justification of the monopolist position of Svenska Spel by the Swedish authorities is what we will analyze in the next two articles on the Swedish gambling industry.

The companies that bring prestige to the Swedish gambling

The high development of the Swedish gambling market is strongest in the online gambling sector. According to statistics of the European Union in 2015, the online gambling in Sweden grew for 11% in comparison with 2014, while the land-based gambling noted a slight decline when revenues are concerned.

• Sweden is the fifth biggest gambling market in Europe

• 11% growth of the Swedish gambling sector noted in 2016

• Sweden’s sportsbooks are among the most popular in the Europe

In the past 25 years, the Swedish gambling industry passed from being exclusively state owned business to the current situation where there are more than 20 private gambling companies, although the shares are again on the side of the state owned companies. However, the Swedish private sector has made a huge development. Among the private companies, as online gambling sites in Sweden stress, the most famous names are coming from the sports betting market. Unibet and Betsson, both Swedish owned companies, are currently listed among the greatest online gambling providers in Europe offering a huge diversity of betting and casino games abroad. Further, two of the leading companies in the world, for creation of gambling systems for online casinos, Evolution Gaming and NetEnt are also Swedish owned with headquarters in Stockholm. In general beside the state owned Svenska Spel, the private gambling sector in Sweden succeed in making around EUR 460 million in 2016, which is an 8 % increase in comparison with 2015.

The current economic performances of the Swedish market

The gambling market in Sweden is relatively large. Online gambling is considered to make 40 % of the total revenue, which makes the Swedish gambling market the third in the EU, after Ireland and Denmark in this respect. If we transfer these numbers in euros, it turns out that Sweden has the fifth most successful online market in the EU, after the France, UK, Germany and Italy. There are currently fifteen private gambling companies on the Swedish stock exchange list: AHA World, Angler Gaming, Betsson, Cherry, Evolution Gaming, Gaming Corps, Kambi, LeoVegas, Mr Green, NetEnt, Net Gaming Europe, Nordic Leisure, PlayHippo, Spiffx and Unibet. Together these companies worth EUR 7.9 billion increasing thus the value of the Swedish market for EUR 1.7 billion in comparison with 2013.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=S0OWVXSCtII

According to statistics of the EU made in 2016, referring to the performances of 2015, the online gambling sector in Sweden will increase in revenues even more in the upcoming year. This trend however, will demand for sure a new legislation that will be more liberal than the current one, which gives advantage to Svenska Spel especially in sectors such as lotto games, bingo and poker. The Government, as online gambling sites in the EU report, announced the discussion about the new gambling law in the country for March 2017, with the plan to set it on force from 2018. But how the new legislative will frame the position of Svenska Spel is something that many are interested to see. In the next article we give a few possible scenarios for the development of the new gambling legislative in Sweden.