Sweden in the News — Weekly Round-up for December 14, 2018

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Dec 14, 2018

The Stars Group Approved For Action In Sweden

For PokerStars, BetStars and FullTilt brands

Toronto-listed online betting and gaming operator The Stars Group (TSG) has become the nineteenth operator approved to operate in the Swedish market by regulator Lotterinspektionen.

TSG has been issued online gaming and betting licenses for four of its brands – pokerstars.se, pokerstarscasino.se, fulltilt.se and betstars.se.

Another Four Operators Gain Access To Sweden’s Market

Betway, Expekt, Tipwin and Mandalorian Technologies awarded licenses

Betway, Expekt, Tipwin and Mandalorian Technologies are the latest operators to gain access to the Swedish market following the award of another batch of concessions by regulator, Lotteriinspektionen.

Betway, Expekt and Tipwin have received online gaming and betting licenses, while Mandalorian Technologies has been awarded a gaming license for its noaccountcasino.com and prankcasino.com brands.

MRG, Bethard And Evoke All Secure Swedish Online Licenses (Update)

26 companies are now cleared to operate

The latest online gambling licenses awarded by the Swedish regulatory authority have been secured by MRG, Bethard and Evoke Gaming, bringing to 26 the number of companies who have been empowered to start offering gambling services to Swedish players from January next year.

Per Norman, CEO of MRG, said: “We welcome the Swedish regulation and are looking forward to offering a superior experience in our Green Gaming environment.”

Bethard, which secured entry into the UK and Denmark earlier this year, says more jurisdiction licenses will follow in 2019.

Erik Skarp, founder and CEO of Bethard Group, said: “We are, of course, very pleased with having our Swedish license and to have received a green light for continuing growth in the Swedish market. Today, I am celebrating together with our white-label clients, who now will get the same opportunity as us to carry out operations in Sweden.

Netent Engaged In Streamlining And Restructuring

Online gambling giant to fire 55 as it reorganises to increase profitability and competitiveness

Swedish online gambling company NetEnt is taking action to optimise its operations, the company advised in a press statement Tuesday, revealing that it is streamlining and restructuring the organisation, which will lead to staff reductions in Stockholm.

The reorganisation is expected to result in non-recurring costs of approximately SEK 25 million, which will be booked in the fourth quarter of 2018. Of these costs, SEK 5 million relate to a write-down of intangible assets regarding a development project in the area of Virtual Reality.

The restructuring of NetEnt affects 55 full-time positions, the statement reveals, most of which are in Stockholm and within corporate support functions. The changes are taking place during December and will lead to a reallocation of resources to increased game production.

Therese Hillman, Group CEO of NetEnt, said: “By decentralising our operations we take another step towards a new NetEnt, where customers and players are in focus. The new organisation will have clearer responsibilities and more emphasis on value-creating initiatives.

“We are pleased to see the performance of our new game releases so far in the fourth quarter as we continue to diversify our game portfolio. Going forward, we will increase the pace of output and expect to release 30 – 35 new games in 2019.”

Brian Cullingworth

Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.

We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.

His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.


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