Four of Sweden’s largest gambling operators have teamed up to launch a new website called Fakta om spel (“Facts about Gaming”), that intends to provide more information about the Swedish gambling market.
The four operators will run the new project in collaboration with Sweden’s online gaming association.
What is Fakta om spel?
The new initiative, Fakta om spel, which translates into Facts about Gaming, is a new site that will see four of Sweden’s leading operators work together to provide more information, research, statistics and insight into the country’s gambling market.
Online gambling operators Betsson, Kindred Group, LeoVegas, and William Hill have launch the project in collaboration with Sweden’s online gaming association Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS).
In its announcement of the project, BOS said that knowledge of the country’s gambling market is generally low, and there are often “misconceptions” about how it is regulated, and what is required to obtain a licence.
According to the announcement, Fakta om spel will provide independent information on the market such as what an operators’ duty of care entails, statistics on marketing and taxes as well as published reports and research.
At the moment, the site provides an overview of the Swedish gambling market and its history along with vertical-specific information on sports betting, poker, online casino and lottery games.
The sites also houses statistics relating to the market and its financial performance.
Gustaf Hoffstedt, Secretary General of BOS said: “It is important that we have an open and free debate about the gambling market. By launching ‘Facts about gambling’ we hope to contribute to a more fact-based debate and encourage increased cooperation within the gambling industry and with other important stakeholders.
“The idea is that the site expands over time and we would like to see more organisations get behind this initiative. We know that increased knowledge contributes to a healthier, safer and fairer gambling market by highlighting the benefits of a licensed market, but also highlighting the important challenges that the industry, authorities, politicians and suppliers need to jointly focus on.”
What else is happening in the Swedish market?
Earlier this month, the Swedish horse racing operator ATG’s CEO Hasse Lord Skarplöth called on the country’s regulator to impose lighter sanctions on operators who report their own mistakes.
In the past two years, the country’s regulator Spelinspektionen has intervened in 46 cases of wrongdoing and ATG accounted for four of these.
Skarplöth said that the business tended to be sanctioned or penalised for failings it had reported itself while other operators may avoid reporting their own failings.
Skarplöth also said that there should be an alternative to the traditional process of a company being sanctioned and then appealing the decision.
Regardless of the regulators’ decision, Skarplöth said ATG will continue to report its own failings to the regulator.