Finland's Regulator Says 12 Online Gambling Applicants Have Been Granted Licences, Veikkaus Not Among Them

Finland's National Police Board has told iGB that 12 companies have been granted licences to run online gambling when the market opens on 1 July 2027. The regulator also said that 79 applications had been submitted as of 26 October, and that none had been rejected. The confirmation came in reply to an information request, so it is the regulator's own statement to a trade publication, not a register entry or a published decision. It is still the first official confirmation of approvals, after Hippos ATG and Wildz Group had announced their own licences.

The 12 named companies are Hippos ATG Oy, Sunflower Gaming Limited, Granturo Finland Ltd (Wildz Group), Skill On Net Ltd, SuomiVeto Oy, Cloudberry Ent Limited, SixthSpin Limited, KuuFlip Limited, RocketLily Ent Limited, Nivei Ursi Limited, YTBlue Limited and Buccone Trading Limited. Most of the list is new names to the Finnish market, which makes the absence of the incumbent harder to read.

The notable gap is Veikkaus, the state monopoly, which also applied to continue in the online market. It is not on the list so far. The source gives no reason for that and no statement from Veikkaus, so its absence should not be read as a rejection. Veikkaus will keep its monopoly over lottery, scratch cards and land-based gaming machines whatever happens with its online application.

Analysis: the regulator's figures suggest that 67 applications were neither granted nor rejected as of 26 October. That leaves open whether the pipeline is slow, whether applicants are being sorted by compliance readiness, or both. If Veikkaus has the customer database and brand that the source credits it with, a late approval would change how the first months of competition look. The estimated 2026 market GGR of €1.9 billion, with about 81% from online, is the stake that makes the timing matter. The next signals to watch are a published register, a formal Veikkaus statement, or regulator decisions on the remaining applications.