FEATURE
SWEDEN:
MARKETERS SEEK CLARITY
Former Denmark regulator and Nordic gambling expert Morten Ronde updates iGB Affiliate on the
developing regulatory framework in Sweden
The EC standstill period set aside for
review of the main draft law ended
on 20 March. What are the next
steps and how should operators
and affiliates be preparing?
We are all waiting for the Swedish State
Counsel to deliver a legal assessment
of the draft law. They need to do that
before the government can submit the
draft in parliament. There was a deadline
for the government to submit proposals
on 20 March.
If the political parties agree, they could
submit the legislation later, but they would
have to make this a priority measure. So
at the moment, stakeholders are anxiously
waiting to see if this is going to happen or
not during this parliamentary session.
Christmas introduced a restriction on
retention bonuses, but that doesn’t affect
affiliates too much as they would market
the acquisition bonus.
So for now, it looks as if affiliates will
go relatively unscathed, but we don’t know
yet if there will be more restrictions in the
forthcoming secondary legislation.
Denmark became the poster boy of
dot.country regulation compared
with the regimes that preceded it,
with a viable tax rate, poker pools
left open to international liquidity
and open dialogue between
authorities and stakeholders.
Has Sweden learnt the lessons
from this?
“The worry is that the government has not wanted to
consult with the industry, so there’s no possible way
to speak about the issues or address industry’s concerns”
What was outlined by the CEO of the
gambling authority recently is that the law
would be tabled in parliament in March, the
gambling authority would publish a number
of secondary regulations that same month,
the law adopted by parliament in May and
the first licensing window opened in July.
We are hoping to know by early April
if this will happen.
How will affiliates be regulated
under the new Swedish framework?
Not all the regulation has been revealed
yet. From what we can see so far, it’s the
same system as in the UK and Denmark,
where the operators are liable for all
marketing, including that undertaken by
affiliates on their behalf. The question is
if there will be independent liability for
the affiliate. We don’t know this yet.
The draft law submitted to the EC before
Absolutely. The draft law and the regulations
are in part identical to the Danish system,
and a bit of a mix between those in place
in Denmark and the UK, so a lot of lessons
have been learnt. The proposal as it stands
right now looks pretty good for the industry,
but restrictions on retention bonuses and
possibly more to come could change the
picture. The worry is that the government
has not wanted to consult with the industry,
so there’s no possible way to speak about the
issues or address industry’s concerns. While
there has been a public consultation process
around the draft law and report, no other
dialogue has been possible as the gambling
authority has refused to meet with operators.
There has been no way of relaying our
concerns apart from writing to it. This may
change when the law is before parliament,
but the authority has taken a very cautious
approach so far.
Some operators have criticised
monopoly Svenska Spel potentially
being able to cross-sell between
their non-competitive and
competitive databases from 2019.
Will that really be much of an
advantage given the strength of
international brands there, and
is it that different from those
operators leveraging their
dot.com databases?
You have seen from Denmark that it was
an issue and that it remains so. Danske Spil
was cross-selling casino games to winning
players, creating an unfair advantage over
operators without those products. Maybe
it won’t be the same in Sweden, as the
Kindreds and the Betssons have a stronger
foothold, but it’s still a very concerning
issue which hasn’t, from what we’ve seen
so far, been properly addressed in the law.
So this is something we are hoping the
government has addressed in the new draft
to be presented in parliament. It currently
says Svenska Spel has to split its businesses
but it’s not clear enough. The industry is
pushing the government to clarify this.
NAME: MORTEN RONDE
WHEN: 25 APRIL @ 10:00
MORTEN RONDE is
CEO of the Danish Online
Gambling Association
and partner of Nordic
Gambling. Morten has
18 years of experience in the
gambling industry.
iGB Affiliate Issue 68 APR/MAY 2018
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