It has just been a little over three months since Sweden launched its newly regulated online gaming market and, in that time, the country’s former gaming monopolies have been winning the battle for the market share. According to Spelinspektionen, the Swedish gaming regulator, Svenska Spel and ATG, the country’s former gaming monopolies have accounted for over half of the SEK3.288 billion ($353.7 million) in gaming revenue that the digital gaming industry brought in the first quarter of 2019.
In the brief snapshot that was released by the gaming regulator to, it was revealed that Svenska Spel’s online gaming revenue stood at a whopping SEK577 million by the end of March while ATG raked in up to SEK1.068 billion in gaming revenue within the same period. Svenska Spel’s impressive revenue figures can be traced back to its vast number of gaming operations that include online and retail sports betting, online gaming, brick-and-mortar casinos as well as a host of other gaming verticals. ATG, on the hand, is best known for the world-class horse race betting services that it offers its customers.
The two companies have continued top in the country’s gaming market despite the recent reorganization of the Swedish market earlier this year. It is worth noting that the two companies are currently competing with over 60 locally licensed international operators that entered the market at the beginning of the year after being approved by Spelinspektionen.
Unfair Prices
While Svenska Spel and ATG had been previously prevented from offering online casino products before the market liberalization took effect back in January, the companies still managed to outdo their competitors and this was because they spent a better part of 2018 inking numerous technology deals. This certainly played a vital role in their success at nabbing a huge chunk of the country’s gaming market.
Even so, there are still some parties that are not too happy about two companies’ online dominance. Branschföreningen för onlinespel (BOS), the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling, has recently filed a complaint with the Swedish Competition Authority citing concerns that ATG has been indulging in unfair practices with regards to whom it allows to access its pools. To put the complaint into perspective, ATG has reportedly opened up its player pools to foreign gaming companies that are not licensed in the country while denying access to local operators that have been licensed by Spelinspektionen – two companies that have been allegedly denied access to the pools include Betsson and the Kindred Group.
On the same note, BOS has also already previously filed a complaint against Svenska Spel with the Swedish Competition Authority. Svenska Spel was accused of employing unfair practices that involved promoting its new online gaming offerings to its existing land-based casino client base that it had built for years.
