Svenska Spel reports drop in revenue amid casino closures
The operator hopes its new Lyckoplatsen lottery product will compensate for the loss of land-based casino revenue.
Sweden.- The state-controlled gambling operator Svenska Spel has reported a 4 per cent downturn in revenue for the first quarter of the year. Net gaming revenue came in at SEK 1.88bn (€171.7m), amid the closure of two out of its three Casino Cosmopol land-based casinos in February of last year.
The operator closed its Gothenburg and Malmö casinos on February 24, 2024, leaving only the flagship Stockholm casino running. The remaining casino is to close by the end of this year, leaving no land-based casinos in Sweden.
Considering that the two shuttered casinos were open for well over half of Q1 2024, the drop in revenue is relatively modest. This highlights the extent of the decline of the land-based casino segment in Sweden, and also the rise of online gambling. Svenska Spel hopes that its new Lyckoplatsen lottery product, which it launched in the past quarter, will further help it make up for the loss of Casino Cosmopol’s contributions to its income.
Svenska Spel results by vertical
As for the results by vertical in Q1, lottery revenue fell by 1 per cent year-on-year to SEK 1.2m, probably due to the dates of Easter this year. Sports betting and casino revenue were up slightly at SEK 551m, mainly thanks to the Betbuilder tool, Oddset. Online gaming contributed SEK 1.167m, an increase of 7 per cent year-on-year.
Svenska Spel declared a quarterly operating profit of SEK 609m, an increase of 96 per cent year-on-year. This was partly due to the reduction of costs following the closure of the two land-based casinos.
Meanwhile, Swedish operators remain concerned about the extent of unlicensed gambling. The Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen reported in its latest study that channelisation to the legal market is 86 per cent.
As for the unlicensed sites chosen by Swedish players, Spelinspektionen points the finger at the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, the Indian Ocean island of Anjouan and skin betting sites
