Finland's National Police Board grants 18 gambling licences, with 63 applications still under review

Finland's National Police Board (NPB) has granted 18 licences under the country's new Gambling Act and is still reviewing 63 further applications. The board published its list of licence holders on 29 October 2026, eight months before the market opens to licensed competition on 1 July 2027. Unless otherwise specified, the licences run from 1 July 2027 to 30 June 2032.

The list names companies including Cloudberry Ent Limited, KuuFlip Limited, SixthSpin Limited, Hippos ATG Oy, SkillOnNet's licensed entity, SuomiVeto Oy, UnionJack Limited and Amber Entertainment Finland Ltd. It gives company names only and does not identify the groups that own them. Several operators had already announced approvals. Wildz Group did so on 15 October, and Hippos ATG, a joint venture between ATG and the Finnish trotting association Suomen Hippos, followed on 19 October. SuomiVeto was set up by BetCity.nl founders Melvin Bostelaar and Joey Singels. European Entertainment Group, the owner of ComeOn Group, said on 22 October that it had received every licence it applied for, without naming the companies.

The total has grown steadily. On 26 October the NPB confirmed 12 licences from 79 applications, with no rejections. Six more were added within days. Applications stood at 50 in June and 75 in late September, and now total 81. Applications do not equal companies, as some groups applied through more than one entity, and each application costs 29,000 euros to process in 2026.

The NPB now estimates processing at six to eight months per application, longer than the three to six months it first expected. Applications are handled in the order received. Most applicants are foreign, which adds to the workload. Juho Puisto, a senior adviser at the board's Gambling Administration, said that in such cases it is the applicant's responsibility to supply the required official reports and attachments. He added that a single application can run to hundreds of pages and that requests for further information affect processing times.

A licence does not allow immediate launch. Holders can offer and market gambling no earlier than 1 July 2027, and only after completing required audits and connecting to the NPB's supervision system. There is no application deadline and no legal cap on operator numbers, and the board expects dozens more decisions. It remains the licensing authority until the end of June 2027, after which the Finnish Supervisory Agency takes over. No Veikkaus company has received a licence, and the state-owned operator keeps its online monopoly until the end of June 2027.