Finland's Police Board Confirms 12 Gambling Licences and No Rejections

Finland's licensing authority has given its first official count of awards for the market that opens on 1 July 2027, three times the number operators had announced. Only three of the 12 licensees can be matched to a known operator.

• Finland's National Police Board (Poliisihallitus) told iGaming Business that, as of 26 October, it had received 79 licence applications, granted 12 licences and rejected none
• The board's figure supersedes the four operator-announced awards in iGaming Times' 26 October report, which rested on the companies' own statements
• The board named licensees by legal entity, and only Hippos ATG Oy, Granturo Finland Ltd of Wildz Group and SuomiVeto Oy match an operator's announcement
• No licensed entity carries the ComeOn name, although European Entertainment Group said on 22 October that ComeOn Group had won every Finnish licence it sought
• Veikkaus, which applied for licences for both its exclusive and its competitive business, is not yet among the licensees in Finland

The Board Puts the First Official Number on Finland's Licensing Round

Finland's National Police Board has granted 12 licences for the competitive gambling market and has rejected no application, according to figures it gave iGaming Business in response to an information request. The board said 79 applications had been submitted as of 26 October. It gave no pending figure; on its numbers, 67 were undecided unless some had been withdrawn. iGaming Business called the disclosure the regulator's first official confirmation of awards.

The count supersedes the four awards iGaming Times reported on 26 October, when Wildz Group, Hippos ATG, ComeOn and SuomiVeto had announced licences and, as CasinoBeats reported, no regulator list existed. On 22 September the board had told the public broadcaster Yle that it had 75 applications and had decided none.

Twelve Legal Names, Three Known Operators

The board's list, as published by iGaming Business, comprises Hippos ATG Oy, Sunflower Gaming Limited, Granturo Finland Ltd, Skill On Net Ltd, SuomiVeto Oy, Cloudberry Ent Limited, SixthSpin Limited, KuuFlip Limited, RocketLily Ent Limited, Nivei Ursi Limited, YTBlue Limited and Buccone Trading Limited. iGaming Business identifies Granturo Finland as part of Wildz Group, which announced its licence on 15 October. Hippos ATG announced its award on 19 October, and SuomiVeto has published its licence number, RALU/2027/L111, with a decision date of 22 October.

None of the other nine carries the ComeOn name. European Entertainment Group (EEG) said on 22 October that its subsidiary ComeOn Group had been awarded "all gambling licences it applied for", but its release names no licensed entity, licence number or count. If both EEG and the board are right, ComeOn's licences sit under one or more of the nine unclaimed names. Neither has said which.

All 12 were early filers. A list of 25 applicants that Yle obtained from the board through a records request, with data to 29 March 2026, contains every one of the 12 names, and none under the ComeOn or Veikkaus name.

Veikkaus set up two subsidiaries in May and applied for licences for both its exclusive operations and the competitive market, according to its half-year report, which put the digital channel's share of its gross gaming revenue at 64.5% in the first half of 2026.

A Clean Approval Record Reflects the Queue, Not Leniency

Twelve decisions and no refusals is a record built on the first cohort. Every licensee had filed by the end of March, and the board told Yle in September that processing takes six to eight months, so the decisions fall where that estimate puts them. The 67 undecided applications include every later and possibly thinner file. A zero rejection rate is therefore a statement about timing, and the test of the board's rigour lies ahead.

The Register Problem Has Moved From How Many to Who

The board has said how many licences exist, but not who stands behind nine of them. Names such as KuuFlip Limited or Nivei Ursi Limited tell a bank, a media owner or a player nothing about the brands they will trade as. The public register of licence holders is due only when the new supervisory agency takes over on 1 July 2027; until then the market depends on operators choosing to speak. For a regime whose enforcement rests on telling licensed brands from unlicensed ones, that gap matters.

Veikkaus's Absence Is a Matter of Sequence, Not Yet of Substance

Veikkaus appears to be missing because it filed later, not because it was refused: no application has been rejected, and its name is not on the 29 March list. Even so, the incumbent has the most to lose from delay, because it already takes most of its revenue online and needs a licence to keep offering online casino and betting after 1 July 2027. Each month without a decision is planning time that licensed rivals no longer spend waiting.

The board has turned four press releases into an official count, and its unblemished record so far belongs to the March cohort. What it has not yet told the market is which brands nine of its 12 licensees will trade as.