Part 2: Sweden –weathering the storm
Help or hindrance
To make matters worse, the report also suggested
the rate of channelisation is deteriorating. In part,
this increase in unlicensed play can be ascribed to
the actions of the regulator and the government.
As has been detailed extensively, the Swedish
Gambling Authority (SGA) has intervened in
the market largely via the imposition of fines for
breaches of marketing regulations. The most
recent was the SEK100m (£8.4m) fine levied
against Kindred for offering unauthorised bonuses
to players.
Pointedly, the SGA said in December that
it would be upping its game when it came to
clamping down on unlicensed sites, which in
itself would appear to be an admittance that play
on these sites is on the rise. However, without
any powers of enforcement or prosecution,
this amounts to simply listing what it deems
to be unlicensed offerings on its website and
encouraging operators and suppliers not to
cooperate with these entities.
But hopes on the part of the licensed sector
for more leeway from the authorities have
been dashed by the government’s reaction to
the current crisis, which has instead seen the
government move to issue new guidance on both
deposit limits and bonus limits for online.
The minister responsible for gambling,
Ardalan Shekarabi, has also indicated that the
Swedish government is looking at adding new
curbs on advertising, despite the reported fall in
gambling ads since the current crisis took hold.
He also hit the headlines in April after he called
for a ban on gambling on lower league football
games in Sweden.
Following the publication of the Copenhagen
Economics report, the chief executives of many
of the leading operators in the Swedish market,
including Pontus Lindwall from Betsson, Henrik
Tjärnström from Kindred, Gustaf Hagman at
LeoVegas, Therese Hillman of NetEnt and Ulrik
Bengtsson at William Hill issued an open letter.
They pointed out that “not everyone joined
the Ardalan train” when the market regulated.
“Many companies felt there was more to gain
The online casino offering
seems to have all the
prerequisites to benefit from
the coronavirus outbreak. We would
expect a significant increase in player
activity among online casino operators.
Redeye analysts
from staying out of the system and continuing
to offer games beyond the reach of taxes,
controls and other responsible gaming measures
– the so-called black market,” the executives
wrote. Meanwhile, the regulated market is
hobbled in its attempts to compete after “the
package” – i.e., regulations and taxes in return
for legitimacy and the ability to advertise – has
“changed completely”.
The executives warned that the Swedish
authorities are in danger of losing sight of a
central tenet of online. “We must remember that
it is the customers who choose where the best
product is,” they warn. “In a digital world, that
power does not lie with the state, or with us as
corporations for that matter.”
Talking specifically about the findings from
the CE report regarding channelisation rates,
the letter suggested this represents a “failing
grade” for the regulator. The letter noted that
the “biggest drop” was online casino, where
according to the CE estimates, up to one in every
four krona spent goes to offshore sites.
Availability and attractiveness
This is not surprising given the report’s findings. It
looked at the likely success of offshore offerings
through the prism of five attributes: availability,
similarities, ease of entry, attractiveness and
consumer willingness.
In all but the last, the report found the strength of
each of these aspects to be high for online casino.
“We find that licensed casino sites face a
high degree of competition from unlicensed
casino sites, primarily because they are similar
iGB Market Monitor • The UK and Sweden • May 2020 12