The Stars Group and Betway among latest Swedish licensees

Sweden’s gambling regulator has approved another group of operators for licences in the country’s re-regulated iGaming market, with Betway, Betclic Everest and The Stars Group among the latest recipients. The Stars Group, via its TSG Interactive subsidiary, has been awarded online gaming and sports betting licences by the Lotteriinspektionen, allowing it to roll out dot.se sites for its PokerStars, PokerStars Casino, Full Tilt and BetStars brands. It will be joined in the market by Betway, which will offer online casino and sports betting, as will Betclic Everest Group’s Nordic-facing Expekt brand. Malta-based operator Tipwin has also been given the green light to roll out sports betting and casino once the market opens on January 1, 2019. Another operator, Mandalorian Technologies, a Malta-based business that holds licences from the Malta Gaming Authority and Government of Curacao, has been approved to offer online casino in the market. Similar to other licensees such as Global Gaming, which was awarded a licence earlier this month, it offers no-account play, via the NoAccountCasino.com domain, as well as operating PrankCasino.com. Since announcing its first licence approvals on November 30, the Lotteriinspektionen, which will be rebranded as the Spelinspektionen from January 2019, has approved 20 operators’ applications. This includes a licence for Svenska Spel’s Sport & Casino subsidiary, which will compete against private operators for the first time. The current monopoly operator has also been approved to continue as the exclusive provider of lottery games in the market. The likes of GVC Holdings, Kindred Group, Betsson and LeoVegas have all secured licences, with further successful applications to be announced through to the end of the year. While the regulator has not confirmed the licence period for each operator, it has noted that some will not be approved for the maximum five-year period, as a result of past infractions in the market.