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Overview of new regulation in Finland’s iGaming market
On the first day of ICE Barcelona 2026, Gaming in Europe formally launched Gaming in Finland with an exclusive evening conference, during which it brought together industry experts to speak at the event.
One such expert, Josh Hodgson, who is the COO of H2 Gambling Capital, spoke with the topic of ‘The Finnish iGaming market in numbers’. H2, a global specialist gambling sector market data provider based in the UK, describes itself as a “betting and gaming consultancy that was established to provide market intelligence and bespoke consultancy services”.
Gaming in Europe founder Willem van Oort has stated that he believes Finland is going to be an exciting market, and, on the Gaming in Finland conference, said that he is happy that Gaming in Europe can play a role in creating important connections between domestic and international stakeholders.
Some statistics for Finland’s iGaming market
The Finnish iGaming market has been a topic of growing significance lately, with Finland set to re-regulate its market this year. The market, as well as the application window for the B2B licence, are set to officially open on July 1, 2027, while the application window for B2C licences will be opening on March 1, 2026.
In his report breaking down the overview of the Finnish iGaming market, Hodgson showed that the market so far had peaked in 2017 at €1.8 billion in Landbased and Online Onshore Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR), adding that there had been a gradual decline in the landbased market accelerated by Covid and market restrictions. Meanwhile, the onshore online market has been experiencing some small growth, which Hodgson largely attributed due to lottery.
Hodgson stated that Finland’s 2026 average regulated gambling annual spend per adult is €211, while across the 27 European Union Member States, it is €287. Ireland has the highest average annual spend, at more than €500.
However, when looking at the numbers from 2018, Finland’s average regulated annual spend per adult, at €376, was significantly higher than the EU average of €208. The only country that had a higher average regulated annual spend per adult than Finland in 2018 was Italy.
With that said, when looking at the 2026 total gambling annual spend per adult, Finland’s average of €416 comes in above the EU average of €327. In this case, Iceland tops the chart with its average coming out to just under €600.
Based on H2’s report, Finland’s 2026 offshore GGR is €853 million, while its onshore GGR is €339 million. It also stated that the 2021-2025 offshore Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) was 13%, while the onshore CAGR was 0%. It added that the 2026 channelisation rate is 28%.
Predictions for the future
H2 predicts that the 2026-2030 offshore CAGR will be 13%, and that the onshore CAGR of the same period will be 32%. Additionally, it predicts that the 2030 channelisation rate will be 77%.
Detailing the online betting and gaming GGR market share in Finland, H2 reported that Veikkaus, a Finnish government-owned betting agency, currently has 40% of the total online market. Stake has the second largest share at 14%. H2 has predicted that Veikkaus’ share will drop to 30% by 2028, and added that it anticipates that there will be significant change in share in 2027 and beyond.
Concluding his talk, Hodgson said that as of 2026, the regulated gambling market in Finland “has been in decline for almost 10 years”. He continued that Finnish players are not spending less than in the past, but that they are instead choosing to play with offshore operators. Hodgson commented that the new regulations being introduced in Finland “will reverse this trend and keep the vast majority of players within the protected onshore market, generating significant revenue and tax income”.
The charts included in this article are credited to H2 Gambling Capital and Josh Hodgson.
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