Finland’s monopoly gambling operator Veikkaus says it is “concerned” that Swedish gaming company ATG is “attempting to build a virtual monopoly” of horse betting in the Finnish market after the breakdown in talks between the parties.
Both sides have disagreed over the failure to agree a new contract for coverage of harness racing – or “trotting” – in Finland.
Patrik Brissman, ATG’s chief corporate communications officer, said Veikkaus wants a new agreement to last until 2030, adding that such a long-term deal would be “unreasonable” for the company given that the Finnish government is overhauling Veikkaus’ gambling monopoly into a multi-licensing system in 2027.
“There are still many unanswered questions about what the market will look like," Brissman told InterGame earlier this week.
"We believe this is a questionable course of action – especially coming from a state-owned monopoly as Veikkaus – and one that could, both in the short and long term, undermine revenues for the horse industry and interest not only in Finnish trotting but in Nordic trotting as a whole.”
In his latest blog post, Jarkko Nordlund, the director of betting and online casino at Veikkaus, said the Finnish company’s offer for a new agreement is “millions of euros higher” than the previous deal.
“We would even be willing to compensate ATG for losses due to the fact that our Finnish customers win more than Swedish players,” he said.
“Veikkaus is concerned that there will be a shift in Finnish horse betting from Veikkaus' statutory monopoly to ATG's Swedish monopoly in the licensing market.”
Nordlund claims that while Veikkaus’ management and board and ATG’s operational management have agreed on the terms of a new deal, ATG’s board of directors rejected the move.
“We are disappointed by this because in our interpretation it means that ATG does not want to commit to a long-term agreement with Veikkaus,” Nordlund said.
“This indicates that Veikkaus would no longer have the opportunity to participate in ATG's projects once the license market opens up. “Due to ATG's decision, Veikkaus believes and is concerned that ATG is attempting to build a virtual monopoly of horse betting in the Finnish license market, as has happened in Sweden.”
InterGame has contacted ATG for its response to Nordlund’s latest comments.
Nordlund said Veikkaus wants to continue to be a “significant player” in horse betting, offering the “widest possible range” of events for customers to bet on from different countries.
“ATG's offering would hopefully be part of this whole in the future. Our main horse betting offering in terms of sites and content is focused on Finnish horse racing in any case. “Veikkaus's intention is to find a long-term and mutual contractual solution with ATG for high-quality Finnish and Swedish horse betting sites.
“ATG has broken off negotiations, so we must prepare for a situation where a cooperation agreement with them is not reached. However, we still have the intention to find a contractual solution to the matter.”
