Hippos ATG secures Finnish gambling licence ahead of the 1 July 2027 market opening

Hippos ATG has received a gambling licence under Finland’s new regulatory framework, putting the ATG–Suomen Hippos joint venture on the list of operators cleared for the country’s shift to a licensed online gambling market. The approval matters because Finland is moving from a monopoly model to a system where sports betting and online casino operators can enter on a regulated basis.

1. Hippos ATG announced the approval on 19 October 2026. The company says the licence is valid for five years, but that does not mean it can start offering gambling services immediately; the market opens on 1 July 2027, and operators still have to complete the work needed to go live under Finland’s legal requirements.
2. The announcement makes Hippos ATG the second operator to publicly confirm approval, after Malta-based Wildz Group said it had also been approved several days earlier. The key detail here is that these are company disclosures, not yet a full public register from the regulator.
3. Finland’s National Police Board is handling applications during the transition period, but it has not yet published a comprehensive list of individual licence decisions. For PSPs and acquirers, that means the current market map is still being assembled from operator statements rather than a final regulator-issued roster.
4. The new Gambling Act will open the market for services including sports betting, online casino games and other specified gambling products from 1 July 2027. At the same time, Veikkaus will keep exclusive rights over lottery games, scratch cards and physical slot machines and casino games, so the reform is partial rather than a full liberalisation.
5. The National Police Board started accepting applications on 1 March 2026, and the number had reached 75 by 22 September 2026. Applicants must pay a €29,000 processing fee and meet legal, operational and suitability requirements; there is no fixed cap on the number of licences available.

Hippos ATG says it plans to offer Finnish customers a product portfolio covering horse racing, sports betting and online casino. In other words, this is not a single-vertical play: for payments teams, the licence points to a multi-product merchant profile that will need to be assessed against Finland’s rules once the market actually opens.