Swedish GGR Stable at SEK24.7bn

Sweden licensed operators recorded gross gaming revenues (GGR) of SEK24.7bn (£2.1bn/€2.4bn/$2.9bn) in the Swedish market in 2020, a fall of just 0.4% compared with 2019.

During the last quarter of 2020, the firms reported GGR of SEK6.8bn, according to estimates published by the regulator Spelinspektionen using figures from the Swedish Tax Agency.

The fourth quarter saw marked growth in online gambling and betting, up 13.3% from SEK3.7bn to SEK4.2bn. State lottery and slot games rose marginally by 4.5% to SEK1.5bn and games for public benefit purposes, including national lotteries, were up 27.4% to SEK982m.

However, state-owned Casino Cosmopol recorded no income for the last three quarters of the year, revenue from bingo halls fell by 6% to SEK44m in the last quarter and other land-based gaming was down 34.7% to SEK32m in the final quarter of the year.

Overall, this all led to the vast majority of 2020’s full-year income coming from online casinos at SEK15.2bn, the state lottery and slot games contributed SEK5.4bn and games for public benefit purposes, including national lotteries, contributed SEK3.6bn.

Casino Cosmopol contributed just the SEK196m it made in the first quarter, bingo halls generated SEK182m and finally income from other land-based venues was SEK166m across the year.

At the end of the 4th quarter of 2020, just over 59,000 people had been suspended for gambling via Spelpaus.se. This was an increase of 6% compared with the previous quarter.

By the beginning of March 2021, that number had increased to almost 61,000 people.

100 companies had active licenses on the Swedish market in March 2021, not including licenses for non-profit purposes. And 70 of these companies were licensed for betting and/or commercial gaming online.

Spelinspektionen also cited data from H2 Gambling Capital estimating that during the fourth quarter of 2020, between SEK613m and SEK724m was generated by unlicensed companies operating in Sweden.

H2 Gambling Capital’s estimated figure for the full year is between SEK2.4bn and SEK2.8bn. This includes all gambling outside the Swedish licensing system, which means also companies that do not target Sweden and thus do not need to have a Swedish license.

As such the figures regarding the Swedish channelisation rate remain somewhat of a mystery.