Spelinspektionen maps Sweden’s unlicensed gambling promotion network, with influencers, Twitch, and Telegram in the frame

Sweden’s gambling regulator says influencers still play a major role in pushing unlicensed online gambling at Swedish consumers, especially in youth-heavy social media environments. For PSPs and operators, the point is not the headline itself — it is the mix of channels, attribution tricks, and fast-moving domains that makes enforcement and due diligence harder.

1. Spelinspektionen’s latest report says unlicensed operators are using livestreaming sites, affiliate link networks, sponsorship deals, and major social media platforms to reach Swedish players. The regulator says the activity is “particularly visible in environments popular with young people,” which is usually code for a distribution problem that travels faster than enforcement.
2. Affiliate link farms remain a primary channel. According to the regulator, these domains redirect search traffic to unlicensed casinos, often operate only briefly, and serve thousands of Swedish IP addresses before disappearing and resurfacing under new names. It also found landing pages on Swedish .se domains that redirect users to English-language gambling sites, which helps obscure the operator’s jurisdiction while keeping the Swedish customer acquisition funnel intact.
3. Livestreaming platforms such as Twitch and Kick were singled out as well. Spelinspektionen said influencers on these sites were distributing affiliate links and promotional codes tied to unlicensed operators, often using giveaways, leaderboards, and skin-betting integrations. The regulator suggested that streamers banned from Twitch under tougher new rules were moving to Kick instead.
4. Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and X were identified as common channels for affiliate links, sponsored posts, and undisclosed promotions. The report also highlights semi-private groups on Telegram and Discord, which make enforcement more cumbersome because the promotional activity is less public and harder to monitor at scale.
5. The regulator flagged several additional tactics: English-language comedy and influencer accounts that have recently started producing Swedish-language content, deepfake ads using Swedish public figures, esports sponsorships, banners for unlicensed casinos hidden behind paywalls or timed releases, and programmatic advertising plus AI-driven tools used to get around publisher blacklists. Spelinspektionen also said its tip-off line had received frequent reports of SMS campaigns targeting people who had self-excluded via Spelpaus.

Spelinspektionen said new technical requirements for Spelpaus will take effect on August 1, including marketing-related checks, tighter verification, and additional measures that were cut off in the source text. For high-risk operators and their payment partners, Sweden remains a useful reminder that affiliate-heavy acquisition is only one side of the issue; the other is whether your own merchant, media, and payout controls can survive this kind of channel churn.