‘Kasino Curt,’ a new casino affiliate website, is to be launched by retired National Hockey League (NHL) player Sami Helenius.
Swedish casino fans are to be the target of the new venture, with Helenius unable to promote the site in his homeland of Finland.
In the nation gaming is directed by the Finnish Lotteries Act, which grants Fintoto, Veikkaus and RAY, three organisations who merged at the start of 2017, exclusive rights to run gambling operations.
Sweden, however, is reportedly pressing forward with plans to overhaul its online gambling market, ending the monopoly of state owned Svenska Spel in the process, and allowing international operators to apply for local licences.
Operators who would continue to serve players in Sweden without a local licence would face large penalties.
Helenius said: “When it comes to online gambling, Sweden is a very interesting country. A Swedish market survey by the Mediavision consultancy found that 61 percent of all new online gambling accounts set up over the past year were with internationally licensed operators.
“From an affiliate’s point of view, this means that referring Swedish players to online casinos should not be difficult, as long as the affiliate website has traffic. I believe that in a couple of years internationally licensed online operators will be allowed to apply for Swedish licenses. I am very excited about Kasino Curt.”
Helenius, a former enforcer known as the ‘Fighting Finn’ for being the first of his nation to take to the NHL in that position, counts Calgary Flames, Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks as his former clubs.
Kasino Curt is named after Swedish ice hockey coach Curt Lindström, who took charge of the Finland men’s national ice hockey team between 1993 and 1997, leading them to their first Ice Hockey World Championships gold medal in 1995.
