Sweden's regulated market hit by "foreign" growth
GGR for nine months to 30 September down 7% although regulator notes "hefty increase in profits" for remote operators
Sweden’s local gambling market dropped 6% in Q3 2014 with gross gaming revenues for the year-to-date now down 7% year-on-year to SEK11.5bn (£990m) with the regulator pointedly referencing corresponding growth in the remote online market.
According to figures released by the Swedish Gambling Authority (Lotteriinspektionen), gross turnover for both online and offline channels for the three months ended 30 September fell 6% from SEK9.8bn to SEK9.1bn, driven by monopoly operator Svenska Spel’s 13% turnover decline from SEK5.4bn to SEK4.8bn.
So far this year Svenska Spel has suffered a double-digit drop in online poker with turnover down 11 %, and the only part of its business to report any growth was sports betting which grew 15.4% year-on-year to SEK4bn (£340m).
Elsewhere in the Swedish market total revenues at horse racing operator ATG fell marginally for the year to date SEK9.1bn (£780m), although online turnover had increased 7.8% year-on-year to SEK4.1bn (£350m).
Online turnover for the first nine months of the year amounted to SEK7.4bn, roughly 25% of the total market.
“Profit for the third quarter largely followed the same pattern as the first two quarters of this year,” Joakim Rönngren, communications manager at Lotteriinspektionen, said.
“We may also note that some foreign-based gambling operators reported a hefty increase in profits for the same period,” he added.
Only last week, multi-national operator Betsson posted a 30% revenue increase with around three quarters of its profits derived from Nordic markets.
News of the declining numbers comes after the European Commission (EC) recently announced it has referred Sweden to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) due its “non-compliant” online gambling laws, prompting Sweden to press ahead with a liberalised re-regulation of the online market.
The EC said Sweden’s current regulatory framework, which grants state-owned monopoly Svenska Spel the exclusive rights to operate and advertise online betting and poker services, was inconsistent with its aims of preventing problem gambling and criminal activities and lacks the required state controls.