Sweden Doles Out First Online Betting Licenses

With sanctioned online betting going live on January 1st, 2019 the government of Sweden is under a bit of a time crunch to get operators licensed. This week the regulator issued their first 12 online gaming licenses to help get things moving.

Lotteriinspektionen, the country's gaming regulator, approved of a dozen operators to offer services to those located in the country. Those granted licenses include Svenska Spel, bet365, GVC, Casumo, LeoVegas, Unibet, and Betsson, NordicBet, and SverigeAutomaten, among others. There have been 95 gaming licenses applied for in the country since Sweden opened the process in August.

More licenses will be given in the following weeks, and it appears that the country is setting up to become a behemoth. Currently online betting isn't regulated, but that hasn't stopped gamblers in the country from going online to offshore sites to get their gaming in.

Speaking about the licensing Lotteriinspektionen Director General Camilla Rosenberg said, "Since one of the purposes of gambling reform was to achieve a high channeling it is encouraging that many bookmakers [already] aimed at the Swedish market will be part of the new license market by year-end."

"This is a historic day for gambling in Sweden. I am very proud that the Lotteriinspektionen staff, working in a short space of time and working with completely new legislation, has been able to process the first licence applications."