Finland’s National Police Board (NPB), which serves as the temporary regulator, has received 75 gambling license applications as of September 22, a total that exceeds early expectations for the country’s competitive market.
The market opens on July 1, 2027, and the Board has not yet decided on any of the filings.
The total stood at 50 in June and was still described as around 50 in August, so 25 more applications arrived over about seven weeks.
Demand outpaces early projections
According to Janne Nikkinen, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, the NPB had previously projected it would issue between 40 and 60 licenses. He said that the government will likely be satisfied with the higher-than-expected demand, and he does not expect significant concern about market saturation.
“It might be the case that not all applicants are accepted. But this is not very likely,” Nikkinen said.
By comparison, Sweden has issued 89 licenses, although its population is about twice that of Finland.
Senior inspector Sanna Kuusela said that the Board began accepting applications on March 1, 2026, and that the first three months produced the most filings, with 24 in March and 23 in May.
No deadline, no ceiling
Kuusela said there is no deadline, and companies can continue to file applications. The law also sets no cap on the number of licensed operators, so Finland is not running a tender for a fixed number of places. Every application that meets the requirements will receive a license.
Earlier reports suggested that only applications filed by the end of August would be ready for the opening. However, that was an inference based on processing time rather than a formal rule.
Six to eight months in the queue
The NPB’s processing target is six to eight months per application, and the Board has not said how many decisions it expects to complete before July 1, 2027. In June, the regulator warned that applicants may wait six months for an outcome, which means companies that want to operate from the first day would likely need to apply before the end of December 2026.
Under the eight-month timeline, an application filed in September would receive a decision in May 2027, while one filed in January 2027 would be decided after the market opens. The Act allows a license to be granted at any time, and an operator can launch once it holds one. Consequently, the group of operators active on July 2, 2027, may differ from the one at the end of that year.
Two paths to a Finnish license
Each license carries a fee of €29,000 ($33,060). A gambling game license is available to operators that plan to offer fixed-odds betting, pool betting, virtual betting, online casino or online slots, while gaming software licenses are available specifically for suppliers. The software license regime does not open until July 2027.
Because the framework includes several license categories, some companies may have applied for more than one, and the 75 applications do not necessarily come from 75 separate companies. LeoVegas has publicly disclosed that it is pursuing both licenses. The NPB has not released the names of all applicants.
An incumbent with deep reach
State-owned Veikkaus, an established brand in Finland, generated €936.3 million ($1,067 million) in sales revenue in 2025 from 2.7 million registered customers, close to half of the country’s population of about 5.7 million. The figures point to consumer appetite for gambling products in Finland, but they also indicate significant incumbent competition for new entrants.
Veikkaus has applied for licenses to continue its exclusive lottery operations and to compete in the open market for betting, online casino, online slots and online bingo. The company is also rumored to be close to going public.
Fewer routes to reach players
Marketing restrictions may have contributed to lower early estimates of application volumes. From July 1, 2027, the National Supervisory Authority will be responsible for ensuring that “the amount, scope, visibility and frequency of marketing should be moderate and necessary to direct gambling demand to licensed gambling activities.”
Operators will be limited to their own marketing channels, with no affiliates and no influencers. With 75 applicants entering under these conditions, the remaining routes could become costly at launch. Sponsorship is one of those routes, and a Superpesis deal has already been signed nine months before the market opens.
More licensees means more licensed supply competing for the same players, which supports channelization but reduces the share available to any single operator. The Swedish and Danish comparisons used to size the Finnish market assumed a narrower field.
Supplier demand may also rise, since every licensee needs a platform, payments, identification and compliance reporting. An increase from 50 to 75 operators represents 50% more procurement, in a window where the software licensing regime has not yet opened.
Several details remain unclear, including which companies submitted the 75 applications, how many are gambling licenses rather than other permits under the Act, whether any application has been refused or withdrawn, and how many decisions the Board expects to have made by July 1, 2027.