Sweden's first online gambling licenses need apply for renewal by September

Sweden is one of Europe’s best-performing iGaming markets, and also one of its most strictly regulated ones. When the industry went live on January 1, 2019, all successful applicants were issued a five-year license and these licenses are now set to expire on December 31, 2023.

With this in mind, Spelinspektionen, the country’s regulatory tasked with licensing and enforcement, has reminded operators to apply for new licenses before their existing ones expire by the deadline.

In this case, the apply-by date is set for a period no later than four months before a license officially expires. Should an application be submitted in the legally determined period, then a license will be "extended" automatically while Spelinspektionen decides whether an official license renewal must be granted.

In cases when the deadline is missed, and an applicant applies later than the four-month cut-off period, they may run into a problem. Spelinspektionen has cautioned that such companies may need to discontinue their operations for the period while the regulator is deliberating on a new license.

The regulator does not specify how much this may take but cautions that no company may continue to provide games of chance without a license. In other words, any entity applying for a renewal must submit their bid by September 1 at the very latest. The licenses will then be reviewed by Spelinspektionen which will then decide to contact license applicants as it sees fit.

As a reminder, all B2B companies that are subject to license renewals are also subject to penalties should they break existing gambling laws. Meanwhile, Spelinspektionen will be charging SEK600,000 (around $60,000) for a license renewal, as per the country’s existing regulatory framework.

Licenses are taken very seriously in the regulated European market. The Netherlands’ own gambling regulator, issued a €350,000 ($370,000) to Bingoal over the operator’s lack of a license to verify whether consumers had self-excluded. The infringement was recorded for a limited period of time and the operator made amendments, but the penalty was applied nevertheless.

Of course, Sweden is a separate market, but one that holds compliance with existing gambling rules front and centre.

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