Sweden’s gross gaming revenue rose 1.3% year-on-year in 2025, with the online segment outperforming the broader market as state lottery income declined, according to Spelinspektionen’s annual report.
Total GGR across land-based and online reached SEK28.2bn ($3.1bn), up from SEK27.8bn ($3.07bn) in 2024. Online casino and sports betting drove the growth, climbing 3.2% from SEK17.8bn ($1.97bn) to SEK18.4bn ($2.03bn).
Segment Breakdown
Charity lotteries and public benefit gaming posted a 1.7% increase, moving from SEK3.7bn ($407.9m) to SEK3.76bn ($415m). State lottery games moved in the opposite direction, falling 3.4% from SEK5.7bn ($631.7m) to SEK5.5bn ($610.3m).
The divergence reflects a broader structural trend in the Swedish market: digitally native products continue to capture share from traditional state-run lottery formats. Online operators, competing under Sweden’s licensed framework since 2019, have consistently posted growth ahead of the land-based segment.
Sweden’s channelisation performance has been a closely watched metric across Europe. The country’s regulated online market has expanded steadily, though concerns about unlicensed operators drawing traffic from the licensed channel remain part of the regulatory conversation. Q3 2025 data had already shown the online sector as the primary growth driver, with the full-year figures now confirming that pattern held through the fourth quarter.
Q4 Acceleration
The fourth quarter showed stronger momentum than the full-year average. Total GGR for Q4 reached SEK7.8bn ($862m), up 2.6% from SEK7.6bn ($840.4m) in Q4 2024. Online casino and sports betting in Q4 specifically rose 7% to SEK4.95bn ($546.8m), compared to SEK4.63bn ($511m) in the same period a year earlier.
That Q4 acceleration suggests the online segment ended 2025 on firmer footing than the annual headline figure implies. A 7% quarterly increase in online GGR is a meaningful uptick for a market that has operated under a licensed regime for six years and is approaching relative maturity by European standards.
Integrity Data
Spelinspektionen’s annual report also covered match-fixing activity. The regulator recorded two instances of suspicious activity flagged by integrity organisations in 2025, down from five in 2024 and twelve in 2023. Licensees submitted four reports under the obligation introduced last year requiring operators to report suspicious activity directly to the regulator.
The sharp decline in match-fixing alerts is notable, though Spelinspektionen has not attributed it to a specific cause. Whether the reduction reflects improved detection at the operator level, genuine market improvement, or a change in reporting thresholds has not been confirmed.
Market Context
Sweden’s 2025 result sits within a wider European picture of modest online growth offset by pressure on traditional gaming formats. Europe’s total GGR reached €123.4bn in 2024, with online continuing to take a larger share of the overall mix across regulated markets.
Swedish operators have also faced a higher tax environment following increases that took effect in recent years, with the gaming tax rate on GGR a point of ongoing industry debate. ATG’s revenue decline amid the tax hike illustrated how the fiscal environment is weighing differently on state-owned versus commercial operators, a distinction the Spelinspektionen data does not fully resolve but the segment breakdown begins to reveal.
Spelinspektionen will publish quarterly updates throughout 2026. The trajectory of the online segment in Q1, the first full quarter without the tailwind of year-end sports betting volumes, will be the next meaningful data point for the market.
Source: Spelinspektionen
