Sweden failing to channel gamblers to legal sites

Trade association report shows that players continue to wager at unlicensed, off-shore sites.

Sweden.- The Swedish trade association for online gambling has published a report showing the country is failing to channel players to legal online gambling sites.

The report highlights failings in targets for the development of the legal online gambling sector.

Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), which represents 22 Swedish gambling firms, has published a report that finds channelisation to regulated gambling sites is below government targets and is in decline.

The report estimates that between 81 per cent and 85 per cent of players had been channelled to licensed online gambling operators since the country’s iGaming market opened on January 1 2019.

This compares to a government goal to channel 90 per cent of online gambling activity to licensed operators.

The rate for sports betting was between 80 per cent and 85 per cent.

The report found that licensed operators particularly faced competition from unlicensed operators in the casino sector. In casino, the estimated channelisation rate was only between 72 per cent and 78 per cent.

The report was commissioned by the independent consultancy firm Copenhagen Economics. It is the first to show the channelisation for individual gambling verticals in the Swedish market.

BOS has called on Minister Ardalan Shekarabi to withdraw additional restrictions on licensed operators announced last week.

It also called on a Gambling Market Inquiry headed by Anna-Lena Sörenson to abstain from proposing any additional prohibitions on marketing and for the Swedish Gambling Authority to withdraw its suggested restrictions for sports betting, which included prohibitions on betting on friendly matches and lower divisions in football.

BOS Secretary General, Gustaf Hoffstedt, said: “There is no doubt that the licensing system is under heavy pressure when it comes to the gambling verticals sports betting and online casino.

“It is irresponsible to even consider further restrictions towards the locally licensed operators in those verticals, since we know that such restrictions push the punters away from the licensed market to the unregulated illegal market with its non-existent costumer protection.”