Finland Opens Online Gambling Market to Private Operators

Finland will move to partial liberalization of its online gambling market on 1 July 2027. From that date, licensed private operators will be able to offer online gambling services in the country. The country is moving away from its state monopoly model.

License applications opened in March 2026. The National Police Board, which is processing the applications, has begun officially announcing license approvals. iGB has compiled a list of the approved licenses and the companies holding them.

Currently, the state-owned Veikkaus holds exclusive rights over all forms of gambling in Finland. With liberalization, private operators will compete with Veikkaus in the online market. Veikkaus will keep its monopoly over land-based slot machines, lotteries and scratch cards. Supervision of the market will be transferred from the National Police Board to the newly established Supervisory Agency.

The CEO of Wildz Group said the company plans to launch 11 brands in the country and will apply for several more licenses after receiving its first license in October. Operators, lawyers and experts say they are generally satisfied with the new regulatory framework. Despite tightening regulations and tax increases across Europe, there is a stable political consensus in Finland on liberalizing online gambling.

According to H2 Gambling Capital, Finland's total gross gaming revenue (GGR) forecast for 2026 is 1.9 billion euros. Veikkaus's GGR for 2025 was 931 million euros. This is well below the 1.8 billion euro level of 2017. The share of players channeled to the legal market is estimated at around 50 percent. A decade ago, this share is reported to have been as high as 90 percent. The grey market is also large, since operators can legally serve Finnish customers as long as they do not market to them specifically.