Finnish regulator confirms 12 licence approvals as July 2027 online gambling launch approaches

Finland’s National Police Board has now officially confirmed 12 online gambling licence approvals, with 79 applications filed and no rejections so far. For PSPs, acquirers, and banking partners, that means the market entry process is real, not just operator PR.

1. As of 26 October, the National Police Board said it had received 79 gambling licence applications. Twelve licences have been granted, and zero have been rejected. The confirmation came via an information request submitted by iGB.
2. The approved operators are Hippos ATG Oy, Sunflower Gaming Limited, Granturo Finland Ltd (Wildz Group), Skill On Net Ltd, SuomiVeto Oy, Cloudberry Ent Limited, SixthSpin Limited, KuuFlip Limited, RocketLily Ent Limited, Nivei Ursi Limited, YTBlue Limited, and Buccone Trading Limited.
3. This is the first official confirmation from the regulator itself, even though several companies, including Wildz Group and HipposATG, had already announced licence approvals on their own.
4. Finland is liberalising its previously state monopoly-run regime and plans to open online gambling to private operators on 1 July 2027. The licensing process is being administered by the National Police Board.
5. Veikkaus, the current state monopoly, is still waiting for a decision. It has applied to continue competing after liberalisation and is expected to have an advantage on launch thanks to brand recognition and its existing customer database. Veikkaus will keep its monopoly over lottery, scratch cards, and land-based gaming machines, while online gambling moves to private competition.

For high-risk payment providers, Finland matters because it is one of the latest European markets to move away from monopoly control, and the numbers are not small. H2 Gambling Capital data puts total estimated GGR at €1.9 billion in 2026, with an estimated 81% coming from online sources. In other words: this is a regulated online market with scale, not a side project.