Earlier this month, Sweden’s parliament voted 282-19 in favour of the bill and the regulator said it expects to also secure government approval by July 5 at the earliest.
Should this be the case, application documents will be made available soon after in preparation for the regulator to open the licensing process as planned on August 1.
In addition, as part of the preparation, the regulator said that its regulations and guidelines included in the bill will be pre-published on its website after July 24.
These rules will come into force on a preliminary basis on September 1, prior to full regulation from the start of next year.
Lotteriinspektionen said in a press release that a number of foreign operators have already expressed interest in entering the local market and that they anticipate the beginning of the licensing process. The country’s new gambling law is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2019. It is currently being reviewed by the European Commission and is under a three-month standstill period.
The reorganization of Sweden’s landscape is expected to create one of Europe’s largest regulated online gambling markets. Online gaming and betting companies have been targeting Swedish players quite aggressively over the past several years, taking advantage of the potential of the local gambling space and there will certainly be great interest among those to be able to operate under the new regime.
Source: GMB
