Sweden issues 15 new online gambling licenses

One of the biggest challenges for online gambling operators who want to serve European markets has always been simply cracking through the local bureaucracy to get a gaming license. After all, most Central European governments have held gambling monopolies that they’re not eager to give up.
Of course the European Union frowns on closed markets and has been pushing this old guard to give up the goat and open their online gambling markets to other European operators. Not surprisingly, governmental agencies across the continent have dragged their feet when it comes to issuing new online gambling licenses. But every once in a while a government cracks and issues a batch of new licenses. That happened in Sweden last week when the Lotteriinspektionen regulatory body announced that they would be issuing 16 new licenses to online gambling operators.
The new licenses were issued to a mix of local and international operators that includes the former state approved gambling monopolies, Svenska Spel, AB Trav and Galopp. Other familiar names such as Kindred Group; LeoVegas; Betsson; Bet365; Casumo; GVC Holdings; Interwetten; Skill On Net; SuprPlay Ltd; and Tombola were also issued licenses.
The majority of the newly issued licenses were for the standard five-year period with the exception of Casumo, GVC and LeoVegas , which were issued two-year licenses. These provisional licenses were issued because the companies in question had been issued fines by the UK Gambling Commission. The Swedish authorities thought that they needed additional supervision as they entered the local market.
Industry watchers expect to see a few more online gambling licenses issued by the Swedish government in the weeks to come.