Wildz says it holds Finland's first gambling licence

Wildz Group says Finland's National Police Board (Poliisihallitus) has granted it a licence to offer online gambling to Finnish players for five years from 1 July 2027. The Malta-based casino group announced it on 15 October 2026, making it the first operator to say publicly that it has a licence under Finland's new system.

The announcement comes from Wildz. Under the new Gambling Act, the National Police Board is the authority that grants these licences until 30 June 2027.

What Wildz said

Chief executive Sam Brown told NEXT.io: "Receiving the amazing news of being the first operator to receive a licence in Finland is a welcome reward for all the efforts of the team in the application process." He added that the group was "looking forward to July 2027". Board member Lasse Rantala also wrote on LinkedIn that the licence takes effect on 1 July 2027, according to iGaming Business.

The group's brands include Wildz, Caxino, Wheelz, Spinz, Chipz, Tuplaus and Blingi, plus a sportsbook, Wildz Sports.

What the law says

The dates match Finland's new Gambling Act (Rahapelilaki 10/2026). Under section 14, a gambling licence is granted for at most five years at a time, so Wildz is describing the maximum term. The licensing rules have applied since 1 March 2026, but the Act as a whole comes into force on 1 July 2027, and no licence allows private licensed play before that date. From then, licence holders can offer the six game types listed in section 6: fixed-odds, variable-odds and virtual betting, online casino games, online bingo and online slot games. Lotteries and pool games, and gaming machines and casino games, stay under exclusive licences for a state-controlled company (section 5). Until that date, all legal gambling in Finland runs through the state-owned Veikkaus.

Applications opened in March 2026. On 22 September, the Police Board told Yle it had received 75 applications, had not yet decided on any of them, and expected processing to take six to eight months. The law does not cap the number of operators, according to the board, and each application carried a €29,000 processing fee, according to iGaming Business. From 1 July 2027, the new Finnish Supervisory Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto) takes over from the Police Board as the licensing and supervisory authority.

Why the background matters

In October 2025, NEXT.io reported, citing documents first published by the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, that the Police Board had told the group, then called Rootz, that it was considering a marketing prohibition over Wildz promotions aimed at Finland. Wildz rejected the board's conclusion but said it would remove Finland-specific content, according to the same reports.

That history is relevant because of the Act's reliability test. Under section 10, an applicant cannot be considered reliable if, in the two years before the assessment and after 1 September 2024, it was issued a prohibition decision or a penalty payment for running or marketing gambling in breach of the Lotteries Act. Under section 9, a gambling licence can only be granted to an applicant that passes this test.

What it means for players

Nothing changes in Finland yet. Until 1 July 2027, private gambling sites cannot offer licensed play to Finnish players, and the Police Board has acted this year against operators marketing to Finland, including a marketing ban with a conditional fine on MagicPoro. When the market opens, the regulator's own list of licence holders, not a company announcement, is the place to check whether a site is licensed.

Related coverage: how the Police Board has been fining gambling marketing ahead of licensing and its marketing ban with a conditional fine on MagicPoro.

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