Finland draws 75 licence bids ahead of its first open online casino market

Finland had received 75 applications for gambling licences by 22 September 2026, SiGMA reported on 28 September. Applications have been accepted since 1 March 2026 and take six to eight months to process. The market, run as a Veikkaus monopoly until now, opens to licensed online casino and betting operators in July 2027.

What stays with Veikkaus

The reform opens online casino and betting only. Veikkaus keeps its exclusive rights to lotteries, pools, physical slot machines and land-based casinos.

Responsibility for licensing also changes hands: according to SiGMA, it moves from the National Police Board to the new Finnish Supervisory Agency on 30 June 2027, days before the market opens.

Nine months is shorter than it sounds

With six to eight months of processing, most licence decisions are likely to land in the first half of 2027. That leaves a short window between a licence and the July opening to connect content, payments and responsible gambling tools, and to test them.

SiGMA notes that applicants’ reliability and suitability are assessed through documents such as register extracts, certificates and reports, with closer scrutiny for operators based outside Finland.

What it means for content

Seventy-five applicants will be building catalogues for the same launch date. Finland’s official languages are Finnish and Swedish, so localised games and lobby text will matter from the first day.

The technical and certification requirements for game content had not been published in the reporting so far. The practical move now is to plan one casino API integration that can switch on the Finnish list once those rules are confirmed, rather than negotiating studio by studio in spring 2027. More on the region: iGaming solutions for Europe.

Based on reporting by SiGMA (28 September 2026). The application count is as of 22 September 2026. Certification and technical requirements for game content in Finland were not included in that report.