Finland will open its online gambling market to licensed competition on 1 July 2027, and operators are already lining up: the National Police Board has logged 50 business-to-consumer licence applications since the window opened on 1 March 2026. The figure, confirmed by the regulator this week, sits more than a year ahead of launch and points to a crowded entry into one of Europe’s last monopoly markets to open up.
The timeline leaves a defined preparation window. The businesses that tend to win in newly regulated markets are usually the ones that build compliance processes, search visibility and operator relationships before the framework goes live, not after it.
What the reform actually changes
Finland’s president signed the new Gambling Act on 16 January 2026, ending the exclusive model under which state-owned Veikkaus Oy has been the sole authorised operator. From 1 July 2027, private operators will be able to offer fixed-odds and pari-mutuel betting, online casino games, online slots and e-bingo. Veikkaus keeps exclusive rights to lotteries, scratch cards and land-based gaming, and will be split into two companies to separate its monopoly activities from its competitive ones.
The reform creates separate B2C and B2B licence tracks. Operators apply for a gambling licence, software suppliers apply for a game software licence. From 1 January 2028, licensed operators may only use software from suppliers holding a Finnish licence, which pulls the supply chain into scope rather than leaving compliance to operators alone.
Regulatory oversight moves as well. The National Police Board handles licensing during the transition, then hands responsibility to the newly created Finnish Supervisory Agency from July 2027. The new body will have broader administrative enforcement powers than its predecessor, which relied largely on criminal law.
The channelisation problem driving the change
Lawmakers have argued the monopoly no longer functions in an online setting, with more than half of Finnish digital gambling spend flowing to offshore sites outside national control. The same pressure has pushed channelisation up the agenda across the region, including in the Netherlands, where the licensed channelisation rate fell below 50% in the first half of 2025. The Finnish reform follows Denmark, which liberalised in 2012, and Sweden, which moved to a licensing model in 2019, both markets where regulators have since wrestled with leakage and advertising.
Finland will charge licensed operators a 22% tax on gross gaming revenue. Finnplay projects regulated GGR of around $1.37bn in 2027, rising to $1.7bn by 2029. For a country of 5.6 million with an established betting culture around football, ice hockey and Formula 1, that scale helps explain the early application volume.
Foreign operators lead the queue
Most of the 50 applicants so far are international companies, according to the National Police Board, which has set a processing fee of €29,000 for 2026 licences and estimates roughly six months to assess each submission.
The complexity of processing and evaluating applications is affected by the fact that the majority of applicants are foreign.
That was Juha Katainen, senior adviser at the National Police Board, who also asked applicants to stop chasing status updates because the queries divert staff from processing. LeoVegas is among the operators that have publicly confirmed applications, with its Nordics managing director Fredrik Wastenson saying the company has filed for two licences.
Why the build phase matters for affiliates and suppliers
Advertising rules sit alongside the licensing regime and will shape how operators can be promoted. Finland is advancing a whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling ads during live sports broadcasts and tighter rules for streamers who target younger audiences. The direction mirrors Denmark, where sports betting revenue fell 46% ahead of a strict advertising ban. Bonus messaging, responsible gambling disclosure and brand eligibility requirements will all factor into which operators can compete and how affiliates can work with them.
For affiliates, the practical lesson is that high-volume keyword targeting alone will not carry a regulated Finnish market. Content maturity, local relevance and demonstrable compliance accumulate over time, and that authority is hard to manufacture once competition intensifies. The suppliers and publishers studying the framework now, rather than waiting for the launch date, are the ones positioned to move when it arrives.
The next checkpoint is the National Police Board’s processing pace. With applications already at 50 and rising, and each taking around six months to clear, the shape of the 2027 grid will be visible well before the market formally opens.
Source: AffPapa
