Sweden to analyse the effects of iGaming liberalisation

The Swedish government will review the potential impact of liberalising iGaming before a making final call on opening its online market to international operators.

The countries legislators have approved a new version of the new gambling law. It could pave the way for opening up the country’s the online market to international operators. However, the government has stepped in to analyse the situation further on how it will affect the existing local betting monopolies Svenska Spel and ATG.

The Swedish authorities will study how the potential end of these monopolies on January 1st, 2019 will create an impact on sports and racing funding in the country. The main concern would be about the 87 per cent of racing funding, which comes from ATG.

However, the review’s results won’t be released until late 2020, way after the new online gambling scheme gets rolled out. The racing segment has therefore voiced its fear of suffering while the authorities assess the legislation change’s impact.

Still, ATG’s new chairman, Bo Netz, said that the company has as a chief priority to “prepare and make ATG competitive for the new gaming market,” beyond any consequence of the market’s liberalisation.