Finland’s gambling monopoly reports sales fall

The Finnish gambling monopoly reported a decrease in lottery sales.

Veikkaus, the gambling monopoly that started operating in Finland earlier this year after the country’s three state-owned gambling monopolies merged, reported sales of US$2.5 million during the first six months of the year. The operator blamed the bad results on a decrease in lottery sales.

The figures revealed by the operator establish a 0.5 percent decrease from what Ray, Fintoto and Veikkaus generated on their on during the same period last year in lotteries, betting, slot machines and horse racing respectively. Profits also fell 3.3 percent to US$794 million. The decline during the six month period was blamed on lottery sales, modality that suffered a 8.2 percent fall to US$912 million due to smaller jackpots in two draws, Vikinglotto and EuroJackpot.

On the other hand, the divisions of slot machine and instant games inside Veikkaus reported a rise of 4.2 percent to US$957 million. Skills games division, which include sports betting and casino table games, also reported a rise of 5.2 percent to US$646 million. All these divisions include online and land-based operations. Moreover, fixed odds and football pools turnover were 16 and 11 percent up respectively.

CEO of Beikkaus, Olli Sarekoski, highlighted the fact that the operator passed the 2 million mark of registered customers, which represents two-thirds of the country’s adult gamblers. The latest online site was launched in April and has managed to attract 550k customers per week. Furthermore, Veikkaus will unveil a new customer loyalty program next month and is expected to include a new chip-based card that is set to be completed by the end of 2017.