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As dot.country regulation continues to spread across Europe, state-run operators’ previously dominant market shares are increasingly coming under threat. But as Denmark’s Danske Spil has recently proved, this is far from the end of the road for former monopolies
Tom Washington reports
Monopoly money
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or the likes of Austria, Belgium and Greece where state-run monopolies are the status quo, the successful implementation of dot.country regimes in neighbouring jurisdictions has piled on the pressure for regulatory reform. In some cases, opposition to the move to a licencebased market is strong. Greek monopoly operator OPAP has been ?ghting to retain its monopoly status of late despite the beleaguered government being close to cashing in on its 33% stake. But in more cases than not, European countries will follow Italy, Spain and Denmark in a move to claw back the signi?cant revenues currently lining the pockets of offshore, unlicensed competitors. For incumbent monopoly operators, the trend means they must adapt or lose their long-standing and highly valuable market share. In Sweden, horseracing operator ATG and state lottery Svenska Spel control a 90% share of the gambling market, a ?gure that reduces to 50% when taking into account online betting only. Talk of egaming regulation has persisted for several years, although it remains unclear whether the government will seek to protect its monopoly operators, or migrate to a licensing regime akin to that of Denmark. Although online remains a relatively minor part of both businesses, they continue to grow ahead of possible future regulation. ATG moved online in 1995 with sports betting and gaming coming on stream a year later, while in February 1998 it expanded into horse betting through its Interbet portal. Today, online
Horseracing: Svenska Spel and ATG together control a 90% share of the Swedish gambling market
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