The Swedish Gambling Authority, Lotteriinspektionen, announced Wednesday that application forms for interested gambling companies will be available on its website from July 10. The regulator has previously confirmed that the application process for online gambling licenses would start from August 1, 2018.
Yesterday’s announcement marked another preparatory stage ahead of the planned reorganization of Sweden’s gambling market.
Earlier this month, the Swedish legislature approved the country’s proposed new gambling law, Re-Regulation of the Gambling Market (En omreglerad spelmarknad), that aims to replace the country’s existing gambling regulations and liberalize the local market in a manner that would allow for international companies to be able to operate in a regulated environment.
Lotteriinspektionen said in a Wednesday press release that a number of foreign operators have already expressed interest in entering the local market and that they anticipate the beginning of the licensing process. The country’s new gambling law is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2019. It is currently being reviewed by the European Commission and is under a three-month standstill period.
The reorganization of Sweden’s landscape is expected to create one of Europe’s largest regulated online gambling markets. Online gaming and betting companies have been targeting Swedish players quite aggressively over the past several years, taking advantage of the potential of the local gambling space and there will certainly be great interest among those to be able to operate under the new regime.
According to the latest financial report from Lotteriinspektionen, Sweden’s gambling market was worth SEK22.6 billion last year and its gray iGaming market accounted for nearly a quarter of the whole with estimated revenue of SEK5.5 billion.
Possible delays of the Application Forms’ Publication
The Gambling Authority said that while it expects to be able to publish the application forms on July 10, there could be certain delays. The regulator explained that the government is yet to decide on certain aspects of the planned re-regulation of the market and that these decisions are scheduled to be made on July 5.
However, if lawmakers fail to move forward with these, the regulatory body warned that it could publish the forms at a later date and once all legal details are sorted out. Lotteriinspektionen further pointed out that it would publish its final guidelines in relation to the application process on or after July 24. The guidelines will contain important information for operators, the final regulations as approved by the government, and general advice. Application forms would be able to be submitted to the regulator from August 1.
Sweden is gearing up for the re-regulation of its market as more and more gambling companies are picking the Stockholm Stock Exchange to float on. Bloomberg recently reported that the Swedish capital’s stock exchange has become home to the largest number of gambling operators and providers with 19 such companies, beating the London Stock Exchange.
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