Svenska Spel names Frank Hojem as head of comms
Hojem will be responsible for communications and sustainability.
Sweden.- The state-run gambling operator Svenska Spel has named Frank Hojem as its head of communications and sustainability. He will be part of the group’s management team and report to CEO Patrik Hofbauer.
Hojem most recently worked as communications manager at the corporate bank SEB. Before that, he served as communications director at the mining company LKAB.
He said: “I look forward to working with communication and sustainability at Svenska Spel, which has a unique position as an entirely Swedish gambling company and an important partner to Swedish sports, with a strong focus on sustainability and where the surplus goes back to society.”
“It will be exciting to change industries and work with Svenska Spel, which has both a strong group brand and well-known product brands.”
Hofbauer said: “I am very happy to welcome Frank Hojem to Svenska Spel,” said Hofbauer. “Frank’s long experience in leading communication positions in large companies will be a very positive addition to our group management.”
In March, Svenska Spel pledged to increase its monitoring of ‘at-risk behaviours’ due to the current cost-of-living crisis. It stressed that figures suggest a decrease in gambling among at-risk customers in January and February but recognised the financial challenges being faced by the population.
Kajsa Nylander, head of sustainability at Svenska Spel, suggested that the absence of any impact on problem gambling so far this year is a result of the safer gambling measures the operator has put in place over the past two years. These include compulsory income reviews for customers who want to set a monthly spending limit higher than SEK100,000 per month (€9,000), or higher than SEK1,000 for those aged 18 and 19.
Svenska Spel reported full-year 2022 revenue of SEK8bn (€722m), a drop of 1 per cent year-on-year. However, with underlining profits of SEK1.99bn, the operator will still match its 2021 state dividend of SEK2bn (€155m).
