Veikkaus cuts 15 roles and adds 17 as Finland’s market opening moves closer

Finland’s state-owned gambling operator is still reshaping itself ahead of the country’s newly liberalised market, due to open on 1 July 2027. For PSPs, the interesting part is not the headcount shuffle itself, but the fact that Veikkaus is already splitting functions, rebuilding technology, and behaving like a company that expects to compete for licences, not just collect monopoly rent.

1. Veikkaus said the latest reorganisation will terminate 15 existing roles and create 17 new positions. The changes affect several parts of the business, including the Data & AI department, two business units and finance teams, and the related negotiations are expected to last about three weeks.
2. The latest internal changes sit inside a broader restructuring that began after Veikkaus decided in May 2026 to create two subsidiaries: one for exclusive operations and another for the new licence-based, competitive market. Veikkaus has already submitted licence applications as a private entity, alongside around 50 other companies that had applied by the end of June.
3. The company has also been changing the operating model around the market opening. It switched its sportsbook backend from DraftKings to OpenBet, and has been hiring senior industry figures to run the competitive side of the business. Former Scientific Games veteran Chris Armes was appointed executive VP of Gaming Technologies in early August and is due to take up the role in autumn 2026, leading technology from Helsinki.
4. The revenue picture is moving in the same direction. In its interim report for H1 2026, Veikkaus said sales revenue rose 1% year on year to €471.3 million ($546.8 million). Operating profit increased to €227.7 million from €220.6 million, while profit for the period reached €234.2 million versus €229.6 million a year earlier.
5. Digital is doing more of the work. Veikkaus said digital gross gaming revenue made up 64.5% of total parent-company revenue in H1, up 3.6 percentage points year on year. Registered customers reached about 2,672,000 at the end of June, up around 50,000 from the previous year.

For payments teams, the practical takeaway is that Veikkaus is not waiting for 1 July 2027 to reorganise around a competitive market. It is already splitting corporate structures, changing technology, and pushing digital channels harder — which usually means the payments stack has to support a different mix of products, customer journeys and licence expectations before the market even opens.