Finland’s National Police Board (NPB) has received 75 applications for gambling licenses in advance of the country’s competitive market opening in July 2027.
The temporary regulator reported strong interest in June, when the number of applications hit 50, but the extent of engagement has now surpassed initial insider estimates, which predicted the issue of somewhere between 40-60 licenses.
By contrast, neighboring Sweden has given out 89 licenses despite having a population roughly twice the size of Finland.
Of course, the industry is not having to generate demand among the populace from scratch, with the established state-owned Veikkaus brand already a stalwart of Finnish culture. In 2025, the group generated €936.3m [$1.065bn] in sales revenue from 2.7 million registered customers, not far off half of Finland’s roughly 5.7 million population.
