Wildz Group plans 11 brands for Finland after securing gambling licence

Wildz Group has become the first operator to publicly announce approval for Finland’s new online gambling market, and CEO Sam Brown is already sketching out a multi-brand rollout. The key point for high-risk operators: Finland is moving from monopoly to a private online gaming market on 1 July 2027, and licence strategy there will not be a one-brand exercise.

1. Wildz was told last week that it had been granted a licence to operate in Finland’s new online gambling market in 2027. So far, around 80 companies have applied for licences, and Wildz and Hippos ATG are the first to announce approval, with more decisions expected soon as the application window approaches eight months.
2. Brown says Finland will be a core part of Wildz’s strategy to grow its regulated market footprint. The Malta-based group already operates several brands, most of them casino-focused, and its flagship Wildz Casino is live in Germany’s regulated market.
3. The plan in Finland is not to tiptoe in with a single brand. Brown said Wildz intends to launch all 11 of its brands in the country and will likely apply for several more licences. He said the brands will probably be split into “a few different pots” and spread across multiple licences, though that is “not fully confirmed yet.”
4. Brown framed the licence as a “big win” and said the group wants to focus on markets that are either 100% locally regulated or on the way to being so. He also said the multi-licence structure could help manage risk and leave room for M&A later.
5. On product mix, Finland looks like a casino-first market, and Wildz is building for that. Brown said the group plans to launch a couple of sportsbook products, but the emphasis will be on casino and, more specifically, slots rather than live casino, which he described as less popular in Finland.

The regulatory backdrop matters here. Finland’s reform will open online gaming to private operators for the first time on 1 July 2027, ending the current monopoly model. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, that means a new locally regulated market with an operator base that is already positioning itself around licence segmentation, brand splitting, and vertical mix before launch.