Finland grants 12 gambling licences; Veikkaus still waiting

Finland's gambling regulator has granted 12 online gambling licences so far and has not rejected a single application. The National Police Board (Poliisihallitus) gave the figures to iGaming Business in reply to an information request: as of 26 October 2026, 79 applications had been filed, 12 licences granted and none turned down. This is the first count from the regulator itself. Earlier announcements, including ones we covered from Wildz and Hippos ATG, came from the companies.

For players in Finland nothing changes yet. The licences belong to the market opening on 1 July 2027, and the Finnish information site Rahapelilaki.fi notes that licensed operation can start on that date at the earliest. Until then, Veikkaus keeps its monopoly.

Who holds a licence

According to iGB, the Police Board named these 12 licence holders:

• Hippos ATG Oy
• Sunflower Gaming Limited
• Granturo Finland Ltd (Wildz Group)
• Skill On Net Ltd
• SuomiVeto Oy
• Cloudberry Ent Limited
• SixthSpin Limited
• KuuFlip Limited
• RocketLily Ent Limited
• Nivei Ursi Limited
• YTBlue Limited
• Buccone Trading Limited

Most of these are legal entities, not the brand names players see. Four of them, Cloudberry Ent, SixthSpin, KuuFlip and RocketLily Ent, belong to ComeOn Group according to the Finnish site Rahapelilaki.fi. Granturo Finland is part of Wildz Group, and Rahapelilaki.fi lists Hippos ATG as owned half by Suomen Hippos, the Finnish trotting association, and half by Sweden's ATG. Which consumer brands will run under the other licences has not been confirmed by the regulator.

According to Rahapelilaki.fi, the Police Board does not yet publish a list of licence holders, so these figures come from its answers to the media rather than from a register.

Why Veikkaus is still waiting

Veikkaus, which according to iGB will keep its monopoly on lotteries, scratch cards and land-based gaming machines after the opening, has applied to compete in online casino and betting through a subsidiary, Veikkaus Vedonlyönti ja Nettikasino Oy. That application is still being processed.

In our reading, the likely reason is the queue. Ilta-Sanomat reported on 23 October, based on a list the Police Board supplied, that applications are handled in the order they were filed and take six to eight months. The first approved applications were filed in early March; Veikkaus filed on 4 June. Åland-based Paf is also still waiting, according to the paper. At that point the count stood at 10 licences from 78 applications, and 65 of those 78 came from companies registered in Malta, six from Finland, six from Estonia and one from Cyprus.

No application has been refused so far, so in our view a pending status says nothing about the outcome; it mostly reflects when a company filed.

What it means for the market

iGB describes Finland as one of the last European countries to give up its monopoly model. iGB, citing H2 Gambling Capital, puts the market's gross gaming revenue at about €1.9 billion in 2026, around 81% of it online. With 79 applications already in, we expect a crowded licensed market in July 2027; the first licence holders mix large groups with companies most players have never heard of.

The Police Board is already acting on gambling marketing before the opening; see our stories on its 2026 marketing fines and the MagicPoro marketing ban. For the company claims that came before this count, see our pieces on Wildz's licence announcement and Hippos ATG's licence.