Kindred urges Svenska Spel’s privatisation

The company has voiced its concerns regarding the influence of the gambling monopoly on the newly regulated Swedish market.

Sweden.- Stockholm-listed company Kindred Group has urged the government to sell the state-owned gambling monopoly Svenska Spel. The petition comes on the verge of a new online gambling regime in Sweden.

The country’s Ministry of Finance published late last week the updated provisions for the newly national gambling framework. The update details that the Swedish government will separate the gambling market into three business compartments. The first one will be Open/Competitive for new licensed online operators, while the second one will be Public interest, aimed at charitable firms that offer lottery and bingo products. The third compartment will be State Enterprise, operating land-based casinos and gaming machines.

Kindred Group Head of Public Affairs Nordics, Peter Alling, said in a statement: “The government proposition to Parliament is just one part of the reform. The reform intends to keep the market divided in one-part open to competition and one part exclusive to NGOs and governmental operator Svenska Spel.

“Since the current entity, Svenska Spel is to act on both the exclusive and the competitive market, it is from a competition law pov extremely important that Svenska Spel is split into two independent entities. The Ministry of Enterprise (owner of Svenska Spel) and the Ministry of Finance (responsible for legislation on gambling) has so far acted in opposite directions. Here, the government still has a responsibility it can’t avoid. Failure to deal professionally with the split, not adhering to basic competition regulations, will seriously endanger the outcome of the reform.”

Alling added that the proposal to the parliament that was made public on Monday shows that the government doesn’t have intentions to take necessary actions to ensure a fair and competitive market, “but instead to protect the dominant position of the state-owned operator Svenska Spel.”