April 24, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — After 60 years of having the Danish gambling market all to itself, the state-owned Danske Spil organization will soon be facing some foreign competition. A wide-sweeping deregulation push by the government means that the Denmark gaming market will soon be opening up to other companies, reports the Copenhagen Post.
This deregulation is most likely inspired by a lawsuit from the European Commission that complains that the monopoly violates the EU's free market guidelines.
With this change, foreign gaming companies would be allowed to do business in Denmark for the first time. Given the recent surge in gaming popularity in newly opened regions like Spain and Italy, gaming operators have good cause to be excited for the chance to reach a new European market. Even despite the probably-high licensing fee that he state will levy on companies doing business there, the gaming industry still stands to do very well in a new European market.
This is also good news for European-focused affiliates wishing to expand their market presence; Denmark represents one of the last Western European nations to be opened up to free market gaming. And, with last year’s almost 11 billion kroner spent on gaming nationwide, it’s reasonable to anticipate that Danish players will respond positively to a greater choice of iGaming options.
Danske Spil will still exist, and may even improve its operations with this news, since it will no longer have to pay back 30 percent of its intake to the state, which are the current terms of its monopoly.
“It will be nice to get some clarity on the issue after so many years of uncertainty,” the Copenhagen Post quoted H.C. Madsen, Danske Spil’s managing director. “We’ll also be able to offer casino gambling and poker now, which we couldn’t do before.”
Click here to read the original article at the Copenhagen Post.