Hippos ATG Secures Finnish Gaming License as Market Launch Moves Toward July 1, 2027

Hippos ATG Oy has confirmed that it has secured a gaming license in Finland, making it the second company to say so publicly as the country moves toward the end of its gambling monopoly. For high-risk operators and PSPs, the useful bit is simple: Finland is now moving from a closed model to a regulated one, with online betting, horse racing, and iGaming all in scope once the market opens.

1. Hippos ATG’s license will cover online betting on sports and horse races, as well as iGaming once the Finnish market launches. Finland’s liberalized gaming market is set to go live on July 1, 2027, which gives operators and payment providers a clear date to work backward from on onboarding, compliance, and partner selection.
2. The company is a joint venture between the Swedish gambling operator ATG and Suomen Hippos, Finland’s national central organization for trotting and horse breeding. That structure matters because Hippos ATG has already said it plans to use its license to support horse racing in Finland, and the venture has vowed to return some 60% of its profit to equestrian sports and horse breeding.
3. Hippos ATG chief executive officer Mikael Bäcke said the company had already built “a completely new company in Finland” with working methods designed from the ground up to comply with the new legislation. He added that the team can now focus more on the products and on completing the business.
4. Bäcke also said Hippos ATG’s commitment is to create “lasting economic value” for the Finnish horse racing sector and strengthen the conditions for equestrian sports and the sports industry as a whole. In other words: the license is not just a market-entry ticket, but part of a model that ties commercial activity back to Finnish racing.
5. Hippos ATG was among the first companies to express strong interest in the Finnish market and among the first operators to apply for a license. Its announcement follows Wildz, which was technically the first operator to confirm it had received a license from the Finnish National Police Board (NPB).

Finland is also keeping pressure on unlicensed gambling promotion. The NPB has reiterated that prohibition orders and conditional fines remain available, and it has already issued an order to MagicPoro, which is said to have targeted Finns with its marketing content. For anyone planning a Finnish launch, that is the shape of the market: licensed entry is opening, but promotional enforcement is already active.