Swedish Gaming Regulator Issues More Licenses

Another nine providers have been issued with software licences by the Swedish gaming regulator Spelinspektion.

It brings the number of licenced providers in the Swedish regulated market to a total of 12 to date.

Companies who received the fiveyear licences, at a cost of SEK120,000 per license, were igaming providers Arland Gesellschaft Fur Informationstechnologie Mbh, Hacksaw and two of it is subsidiaries (Hacksaw Operations and Hacksaw Studios). Also on the receiving end of licences were Everymatrix Software, Yggdrasil, Relax Gaming and Thunderkick. Only last week three licences were handed out to Synot Games, Norkkoping AB and Skill on Net.

It will be mandatory for all providers to the Swedish gambling market to have licences by July 1 this year. So far 60 providers have applied since March 1 this year when the licences first became available. The consulta - tion period for the licences was back in May 2022.

Gustaf Hoffstedt is secretary-general of the Swedish trade association Branscheförenigen för Onlinespel (BOS).

He said: “I perceive that there is a generally positive attitude towards B2B permits from both the industry and Spelinspektionen.”

“Possibly there is a deviating picture of expectations in that we on the part of the industry have lower expectations that this will really be able to block the larger outflows from the Swedish licensing system.”

Sweden first introduced B2B licencing last year after the policy was endorsed by the Ministry of Finance (Finansdepartementet) and became part of the Swedish Gambling Act.

On introducing the policy, the regular explained “The purpose of introducing the requirement is to increase channelling and thereby discourage illegal gambling.”

“Unlicensed game operators must not be able to use suppliers who manufacture, provide, install and/or change game software for game operators who have a licence in Sweden.”

“The requirement for permission affects both the actors who manufacture, provide, install and/or change game software as well as the operators who provide online games.

“However, the technical requirements for the game as well as the requirements for game consumers will still lie with the operator that provides the game.”

He added: “Because there is already an established land game software development, and taking into account the proposed levels of fees, the proposals are judged to have only a marginal impact on conditions of competition.”