Licensed gambling companies in Sweden recorded a drop in revenue of less than one percentage point year-on-year through 2023’s third quarter after the country’s ecosystem recorded a figure of SEK 6.73bn (2022: SEK 6.77bn). However, this represents the best three month performance of the year. 

This figure represents a slight nudge of less than half of a per cent from the SEK 6.7bn (£499.8m) witnessed through Q1. For the year-to-date, overall revenue is also down less than half a percentage point after closing at SEK 20.02bn (2022 SEK 20.09bn). 

Segmented breakdown

Looking at the country’s latest quarterly revenue in more detail, online betting and gaming maintains its front running status when highlighting each individual reporting segment, despite revenue dropping 1.34 per cent to SEK 4.25bn (2022: SEK 4.31bn). This is up 1.67 per cent quarter-on-quarter from SEK 4.18bn (£311.8m).

Svenska Spel’s lottery and Vegas slots remained consistent via a figure of SEK 1.4bn (£104.4m), while by Casino Cosmopol reached SEK 132m (SEK 9.8m), which is down 11.4 per cent from the previous year’s SEK 149m (£11.1m) but up 4.7 per cent from Q2 2023’s SEK 126m (£9.39m).

Games for public purposes, such as national lotteries, increased 2.23 per cent to SEK 822m (2021: SEK 804m), and restaurant casinos closed the period at SEK 81m (2021: SEK 62m). Community games, which includes bingo, remained consistent with SEK 49m (£3.6m).

At the end of second quarter, approximately 99,000 people were banned from gambling via the Spelpaus self-exclusion scheme, which represents an increase of 4.2 percent compared to the previous quarter’s 95,000.

Recent market developments

The latest figures released by the Spelinspektionen come after the Swedish gambling authority received an increase in funding, across the next three years, to strengthen work in combating illegal gambling and match fixing activities. 

Further recent developments to impact the market include the Swedish government announcing plans within its 2024 budget to increase the tax on gambling GGR from 18 per cent to 22 per cent in hopes of raising an additional SEK 540m (£39.4m) per year.

In addition, BOS, the Swedish trade association for online gambling, last month welcomed Ministry of Justice proposals to strengthen consumer protection and heighten safety protocols regarding risky lending and over-indebtedness.