SWEDISH BETTING A GROWING BUSINESS

31 August 2007

Record numbers of Swedes are betting ever-greater amounts of money on Internet gambling sites


Record numbers of Swedes are betting ever-greater amounts of money on Internet gambling sites, reports the Swedish radio station Sveriges Radio International.

The state-run gambling company Svenska Spel told SRI News that it is expecting a 40 percent jump in the amount of money bet over its Internet sites by the end of 2007, and sports gambling firm ATG has reported a 30 percent increase in web-based bets during the first six months of this year.

Swedish betting websites have extended the range of games they offer, from soccer, horse racing and poker, to include more traditional games such as bingo, the station reveals.

The Swedish gaming company Folkspel, which has seen a steady decline in its traditional scratch-card bingo games, generated a US$ 3.2 million turnover for the first six months of the year from its web-based bingo site, which the company launched some 12 months ago, the report continues.

The industry forecasts that 2007 will see record turnover for gambling companies in Sweden, both over the Internet and elsewhere.

Live coverage of horse racing, effective advertising and fierce competition between betting companies are thought to be some of the factors behind the growing popularity of gambling in Scandinavia, a trend that is likely to grow. ATG has recently launched a gambling service accessed by mobile phones which has already attracted some 2 000 users.

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