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SPORTS BETTING
big reason why we’ ve used OpenBet is that we wanted those self-trading capabilities, as we really see it as a unique possibility for us. We can create markets and a product that no one else in the market can, with the accuracy that we can.”
Generating these in-house odds will be a core part of Veikkaus’ competitive advantage, Reimblad says.
“ For some of the international operators, Finland will be a quite small market overall. So, this is one element that we can really stand out on. It’ s not many that have their own local trading team who are actually doing the odds compiling for the market. I would even state that we are the market in some of the local sports.”
Historically, Reimblad says Veikkaus has operated a high margin betting product and, to improve the consumer’ s overall betting experience, his team has been working to increase the player playback rate.“ It’ s not a secret that monopolies come with a history of low paybacks and it’ s been one way for the international operators to take market share. We have now started to be even more aggressive.”
Payback rate is the percentage a player gets back for every euro they bet. Veikkaus has been slowly increasing that rate, to improve the overall offering and, Reimblad says, to improve the product’ s perception. Profitability has improved since this target was set by Reimblad last year.
LEVERAGING THE HISTORIC VEIKKAUS BRAND
Nordlund says the transformation really commenced in January of last year. Part of the process is deciding how to leverage Veikkaus’ legacy brand in Finland, which is synonymous with both lottery and physical slot machines. Nordlund is wary that, although brand recognition among consumers is assured, Veikkaus’ monopoly past could tarnish its new product.
“ Our brand is super strong, it’ s domestic and reliable. But then we have to also be more entertaining [ than we have been ]. The negative side of the coin is because it’ s a state-owned monopoly, the consumer might believe we can’ t offer competitive odds,” he admits.“ We are most concentrating now to the consumer experience and making that better and that will be then powered by the brand.”
Speaking to iGB in September 2024, local lawyer Antti Koivula and ex- Veikkaus executive Jari Vähänen said they expected that Veikkaus would benefit against independent operators because of its vast brand exposure. After all, Veikkaus slot machines are even found in local supermarkets. One key question raised by stakeholders in response to the government’ s draft gambling bill last summer was whether Veikkaus would maintain any competitive advantages
“ We wouldn’ t have succeeded if we’ d remained the same. We have had to make tangible changes to provide a better experience for the end consumer”
Andreas Reimblad, Veikkaus
over independent operators, particularly in leveraging its decades-old player database and cross-selling users onto the new product suite.
When Sweden liberalised its online gambling market in 2019, the monopoly Svenska Spel’ s new licensed business was granted access to its historical database – but under the condition that players had to opt in to receiving crosssell messaging. Veikkaus has been operating iGaming for some years and so has already built up a player base that would not need to be cross-sold from its land-based or lottery players.
Nordlund says it is not yet clear what the rules for Veikkaus will be on this, as the sector awaits the final gambling bill. This is widely expected to be approved by parliament ahead of the Scandinavian midsummer holiday, which takes place after this issue goes to press.
“ The operators in Finland need more details on it, but it looks like everyone may be able to bring our customer base with us and keep on operating with them,” Nordlund notes.“ But how do we define the customer base? [ Is it players who have been active ] within half a year to a year? These type of operational details needs to be clarified.”
SOURCING THE RIGHT TALENT
The final component to Veikkaus’ transformation is, of course, talent acquisition. Nordlund recently poached a former colleague of Reimblad, Fatemeh Daneshzadeh, ex-product excellence manager for Kindred. Daneshzadeh joined Veikkaus in April as VP of digital channels. Nordlund says that although he is looking to recruit further experienced industry folk, he is also looking at
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