Bitter Months for Sweden's Market Revealed
Published October 22, 2020 by Lee R
Problem gambling; operator revenue drops; and market losses prevail over iGaming gains in Sweden.
The alluring Swedish market experience the usual impact of shutdown from July.
Turnover Drops
The government restrictions are announced by major gaming companies have resulted in a drop in monthly turnover of some 30% since the imposition of restrictions at the beginning of July.
New Limits
Some examples of the restrictions include deposit limits of SEK 5,000 per week and SEK100 limits on bonus offers.
Problem Gambling Up
Many believe the impositions further contributed to an uptick among Swedish players in problem gaming as well.
Operators Lose Customers
At the same time, the deposit limit has hit private operators fairly hard, because it has discouraged many of their customers from playing, to the extent that those customers have abandoned Swedish licensees entirely.
Individual Performances
Market Giant ComeOn Group has acknowledged a major drop in sales from June to August, from SEK118 million to SEK83 million.
Swedish media outlet News 55 further reported a turnover decrease for a second Sweden licensee, Spooniker, from SEK101m to SEK72m.
Sports Betting's Return
More positive results were available from Sweden's sports betting licensees, who received an expected boost from the return of sports.
Carrying the Shutdowns
Carrying the sports betting market in Sweden during the global sports closures from early March were equestrian sports catering to both domestic and global customers, until the return of football and the restoration of healthy wagering.
Q2 Struggles
Q2 figures already reflected the worst quarter in terms of GGR since the ballyhooed launch of Sweden's regulated market in January 2019.
Q2 was generally lagging overall ultimately, with Sweden’s gambling regulator Spelinspektionen indicating that licensed gambling operators confirmed a 4.1% year-on-year decrease, from $7m USD to $6.7m, even while online gambling increased 3.6% year-on-year to $4.1m.
Trade Association Concerns
The uncertainty that has arisen around player protections against has resulted in online gambling operator association Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) to renew its calls to block payments to unregulated gaming sights, and for Spelinspektionen to investigate the level of channelisation in the market.
Outlook
All this adds up to a period of destabilisation which the Swedish market has the resilience and size to weather, while adapting the regulation model to the conditions of the pandemic which have yet to become fully apparent in the iGaming space.
