How USA and Sweden Can Affect European Online Gambling Industry in 2019

Over the last decade, the online gambling industry has quickly grown to become one of the biggest industries in the world.

The fast-paced development leads to exponential increases in revenue, while studies predict a rise in not only the European market revenue in the next few years but the global market altogether.

The previous year was somewhat turbulent in terms of growth. Projects that focus on expansion and strengthening strategies were initiated on various fronts. Many countries announced ground-breaking changes in legislation that promise to shake up the gambling framework. The most recent developments involved new openings towards online gambling in certain European countries such as Colombia, Spain, and Sweden. These are just the tip of the iceberg of countries where an enormous potential for expansion is hidden.

The initiative to change the legislation in the USA will bring even more lucrative deals with the European casino community. And finally, the UK Gambling Commission, a leading institution when it comes to gambling regulations, brought forth an initiative which aims to stabilize the industry with strict regulations and more fines in the next three years.

European online gaming landscape is poised to expand by as much as 10% year-on-year in the next couple of years and it’s fair to say that Sweden carries the torch for the European Union. The same can be said of the USA however.

As a gigantic pool of potential new players, the USA online casino market offers great hope for 2019 and the European online gambling industry as a whole. The states are in a rush to implement new gambling regulations and are coming aboard with expanding the offering beyond sports betting which, as a result, will bring forth a global gaming melting pot with huge potential.

As for Sweden, the country’s newly regulated market has opened its doors on 1st January 2019 with a stronger set of regulations that aim to propel the Nordic country back to the top of the chart after years on state-owned gambling monopoly.

The End of the Swedish Monopoly

For years, Svenska Spel has dominated the Swedish gambling market. However, the private operators which operated without legal permission greatly affected the market as well as the monopoly which this company established. The introduction of the new regulatory framework will include more than 60 licenses for the foreign online operators, as Svenska Spelbegins to move their content online.

As foreign private operators gain legal access to the market, the gaming revenue is expected to rise considerably in comparison to the previous year. In fact, the total gaming revenue for 2018 was €2.2bn, which is 1.5% higher than in 2017. More than half of the profits came from online gambling.

The entrance of private operators greatly benefits both the operators as well as Sweden, as this will boost the revenue for the government in terms of tax money, and the operators will now have a bigger audience to offer their content to in fair conditions.

The Start of a New Chapter in the USA

It was in May of 2018 that the Supreme Court shut down the law which prohibited most states from authorizing gambling.

This cleared the path for each state to legalize sports betting and gambling on their own. The first countries to introduce new sports betting legislation were Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, Michigan, and California, and other states are striving to implement new laws and regulations and thus enable online gambling as soon as possible. Most of the new legislation revolves around sports betting, but it is just a matter of time before gambling is legalized as well.

The USA is, next to Sweden, a completely new area to explore when it comes to the expansion of the online gambling community.

The potential lies in the enormous number of players that are yet to be introduced to the numerous forms of entertainment coming from top-tier providers and operators all around Europe. With potential comes peril and another important part of the progress that is expected in 2019 is the introduction and firm placement of rules for compliance and prevention of gambling addiction.

Promotion of responsible gambling as well as bigger fines and taxes will get even more attention in the future.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.