Swedish Gambling Market In A State Of Flux

Scandinavia boasts some of Europe’s biggest gambling companies, with the lottery commanding the largest market share, but with online casinos and poker also hugely popular across the Nordic countries. However, the region’s gambling market is currently experiencing a state of uncertainty, and no where is this more apparent than in the Swedish market where some of the country’s top operators are reporting wildly different earnings at a time when the overall market is showing signs of contraction.
In 2014, for instance, Swedish online gambling revenues were $2.4 billion, which while impressive was still down on the previous year’s results. Much of the decline can be attributed to the country’s “responsible gambling measures” introduced at the end of 2013 in order to to tackle the problem of gambling addiction. As Svenska Spel’s head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Zenita Strandänger, explained at the time, “we are restrictive in our marketing of certain games that are considered problematic from a gaming responsibility perspective.”
As a result, Svenska Spel’s saw its net gaming revenues fall by 4.7% in Q1 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, but still achieved 5.5% growth in its online revenues, with mobile the biggest growth area, up by 50% in the quarter. As well as tighter gambling regulations, Svenska Spel says its lack of overall growth is also due to more competition, especially from international online bookmakers, and as Svenska Spel CEO Lennart Kall, explains:
“Competition is tougher than ever. This, combined with the responsible gaming measures we introduced last year, means we did not manage to keep the growth rate required to maintain our market share”.
On the other hand, Betsson saw its revenues soar by 23% to $355 million in 2014, of which mobile betting contributed around 25%. On the flip side, the operator reported a $2.3 million loss in its poker revenues, citing “a continued decreased level of activity in poker networks”.
With two of Sweden’s biggest gambling operators reporting hugely different growth rates, the country’s gambling market certainly appears to be in a state of flux, and it will be interesting to see what Sweden’s Q2 2015 gaming revenue results will bring.