Swedish igaming revenue up despite deposit limits

Total revenue for Q3 increased by 1.3 per cent year-on-year to SEK6.04bn, with online revenue up 5.3 per cent to SEK3.69bn.

Sweden.- Gambling revenue for the third quarter increased by 1.3 per cent year-on-year and by 2 per cent on the previous quarter to SEK6.04bn. (€591.1m).

Online revenue also increased, up by 5.3 per cent year-on-year despite Sweden’s introduction of a SEK5,000 limit on deposits in July.

The government is currently considering extending the temporary limit into next year.

The state lottery and machine gaming monopoly operator Svenska Spel accounted for SEK1.47bn, an increase of 7.7 per cent year-on-year and 14 per cent from Q2.

Of that, SEK1.18bn came from its lotteries and SEK177m from its Vegas gaming venues. It saw no revenue from its Casino Cosmopol chain of land-based casinos, which remained closed throughout the quarter.

Elsewhere, bingo and restaurant casinos saw some recovery from Q2, with bingo revenue up 23.7 per cent on the previous quarter at SEK47m and restaurant casino revenue up 32.4 per cent to SEK45m.

However, both remained down by more than 20 per cent year-on-year.

The Swedish gaming regulator, Spelinspektionen, said that there are currently 100 licensed gambling operators in the country, including 72 licensed for online gaming.

The unregulated market, meanwhile, is estimated by H2 Gambling Capital to be worth between SEK627m and SEK740m.

A recent survey published by the regulator revealed that 95% of Swedish players do not know how to check if an operator is licensed. Many did not know if they had used an unlicensed operator or not.