Sweden rakes in record revenues from online gambling in Q3
The Swedish Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen, reported a 7% year-on-year revenue increase for entities holding a Swedish gambling license in the third quarter of this year. The total turnover of the quarter was SEK 6.77 billion. The year-on-year spike was driven by record figures in two sectors in particular – online gambling and state casinos, as both roped in the highest revenue since the fourth quarter of last year.
With the recently concluded FIFA World Cup falling in Q4, the revenue numbers are expected to show even more of a spike at the end of the year. ©Farzad Mohsenvand/Unsplash
Labeled as ‘preliminary figures’ by the Swedish Gambling Authority, the Q3 2022 revenue of SEK 6.77 billion was slightly higher than the Q2 revenue of SEK 6.76 billion and 7% higher than the Q3 2021 revenue of SEK 6.32 billion. The graphs are expected to keep rising all the way into Q4 of 2022. Last year, the fourth quarter recorded a massive revenue of SEK 7.02 billion. This time, with the FIFA World Cup falling in the fourth quarter, the online gambling numbers are likely to spike even further and Q4 of 2022 could touch a record high.
Looking at the specifics, online gambling and betting recorded a SEK 4.31 billion revenue, marking a 10.5% year-on-year spike from the total Q3 2021 revenue of SEK 3.90 billion. The Q3 2022 revenue edged past the previous quarter’s total of SEK 4.22 billion. The state-owned casinos recorded a 12.9% year-on-year increase after roping in revenue of SEK 14.9 million in the third quarter of this year. In the corresponding quarter last year, the recorded revenue was SEK 13.2 million.
Other Sectors
State-owned lottery and slot games notched a Q3 2022 revenue of SEK 1.40 billion marking a 1.2% year-on-year rise. However, the revenue was lower than the numbers of Q4 2021 and Q2 2022. In the previous quarter, the revenue was slightly higher at SEK 1.42 billion. National lotteries marked only a 0.12% year-on-year increase and collected SEK 80.4 million – the lowest revenue compared to the previous three quarters.
Community games and bingo revenue in the third quarter saw a 6.5% year-on-year spike, with the year’s best revenue of SEK 4.9 million. Meanwhile, land-based casinos didn’t come close to matching the Q4 2021 revenue of SEK 6.3 million but recorded a 23% year-on-year increase after roping in SEK 5.9 million in the third quarter of 2022.
Spelinspektionen also reported that a little under 81,300 individuals were added to the gambling exclusion register via Spelpaus.se. Compared to the previous quarter, this number signified a 5% increase in the number of individuals excluded.
Few Swedes okay with illegal gambling
According to a recent survey conducted by the Authority, 21 percent of the players said they might consider using gambling services that are offered by unlicensed operators. Five percent of the players have absolutely no problem gambling on the platforms of illegal gambling service providers, while the majority of the Swedish players opt for the licensed operators.
While the masses want gambling services from licensed operators, only 10 percent of the total players are able to find out whether a particular operator in their country is licensed or not. This could nudge the Authority to conduct campaigns to spread awareness for players, helping them understand how to differentiate between legal and illegal operators.
In other statistics shared in the survey, it was reported that 71 percent of all Swedes have participated in gambling in the span of 12 months. The reported figure is almost the same number as it was last year. Lotteries and number games have been the most common in the markets, with 71 percent of nationals opting for them
Online gambling is still going strong, as 85 percent of players are playing from home. The statistics are still the same as they were in 2021. The awareness of the self-exclusion register has gone up from 59 percent to 62 percent this year.
Bonus offers on unlicensed sites has attracted Swedish players
In October this year, the Swedish Gambling Authority conducted a survey that showed why Swedish players were gambling on websites and other platforms of operators that did not have a license in the country. The most lucrative factor of these illegal operators was the bonuses they were bringing to the table.
The unlicensed operators were allegedly offering better odds compared to the ones provided by the legal operators. The winning opportunities were also far better than what was being offered by the licensed operators. More than 44,000 players who were above the age of 18 were a part of this survey that was conducted by the Authority in collaboration with SKOP. The stat that every third Swedish player gambles online at least once in a quarter was the highlight of this particular survey. Eight percent of those who gambled participated in gambling on operators that were not licensed in the country. However, the number did not tell the entire story because numerous participants did not mention the name of the unlicensed sites they gambled on.
A third of the unlicensed gambling participants stated that they were accessing the services of the illegal operator intentionally. Fifteen percent of regular players mentioned that they had “not done it intentionally but do not know if they have done it unintentionally”. Overall, about a third of the surveyed audience clarified that the reason they gambled on unlicensed sites was because of the unmissable bonuses that were being offered. Around 26 percent of these players claimed to have accessed these sites because they could not gamble on the licensed ones as they were included in the Authority’s self-exclusion program register.
The Authority’s firm stance against unlicensed operators
In September this year, Spelinspektionen banned 28 unlicensed operators from Sweden. The list containing these 28 operators included Ease Gaming, the Curacao-based operator that was offering gambling services to the Swedish population without the required gambling license.
Knowing the local audience is not able to distinguish between licensed and unlicensed operators, the Swedish Gambling Authority has been quite vigilant and has handed out bans to the ones who were caught. Some of the other names on the list of banned operators are 1XCorp, Luckwin, Viking Technology, and TGI Entertainment.
