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Inside Sweden’s Changing Gambling Landscape with Casinor.com

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Sweden’s gambling market has been through more change in the past five years than in the previous two decades combined. Marcus Eriksson, Senior Content Editor at Casinor.com, has been tracking how Swedish players engage with the market and how tightening rules are reshaping their choices. We sat down with him to get his take on where things stand and where they’re headed.

Gaming Americas: Sweden re-regulated its gambling market back in 2019 with high hopes. How would you describe where things are now?

The re-regulation was genuinely ambitious — the goal was to bring at least 90% of Swedish gambling activity inside the licensed system. In the beginning it worked reasonably well, but the numbers have been slipping. Spelinspektionen reported that channelization fell to 85% in 2024, down from 86% the year before. That gap between where the market is and where the government wants it to be is the central tension right now.

Gaming Americas: What’s driving players outside the licensed system?

A few things. When Spelinspektionen surveyed players who used unlicensed sites, 35% cited better winning opportunities, 21% said they had been blocked through the national self-exclusion register, and 15% pointed to better bonus offers. The licensed market is heavily restricted on bonuses and promotions, and that creates a real opening for offshore operators.

The online casino segment is where this is most visible. Channelization in that vertical is estimated at just 72% to 82%, significantly lower than sports betting. When people talk about Sweden’s channelization problem, they’re really talking about online casino.

Gaming Americas: How has the regulatory environment evolved since 2019?

It’s tightened considerably. The gambling tax was raised from 18% to 22% in mid-2024, and licensing requirements were extended to gaming software suppliers in 2023. Sweden is also looking at a proposed “participation criterion” expected to take effect in January 2027, which would make it illegal for Swedish players to participate in unlicensed gambling regardless of whether the operator is actively targeting Sweden. It’s a meaningful legal shift, and one the industry is watching closely.

Gaming Americas: How do Swedish players respond to these restrictions?

They adapt. When licensed operators can’t offer the bonuses or game variety players want, they go looking elsewhere. On Casinor we cover casinos without Swedish license alongside licensed options, because that’s what players are genuinely searching for. Ignoring that reality doesn’t make it go away.

What we try to do is make sure players understand the trade-offs. A licensed casino comes with deposit limits and regulatory oversight. An unlicensed platform may offer more freedom, but also less protection.

Gaming Americas: The land-based market has also shifted dramatically. How does that factor in?

Casino Cosmopol, Sweden’s last land-based casino chain, closed in 2025 after Svenska Spel decided it was no longer viable. Its closure means virtually all Swedish casino activity is now online. The irony is that land-based revenue was already marginal. In 2024, commercial online gambling and sports betting generated SEK 18.1 billion, while land-based venues brought in just SEK 55 to 66 million per quarter. The weight of the market was already online — Cosmopol’s closure just makes it official.

Gaming Americas: Sweden’s licensed market hit SEK 28.2 billion in 2025. Is the market growing?

Slowly. The 2025 total was up 1.3% on 2024, and Q4 revenue rose 2.6% year-on-year. There’s growth, but it’s incremental. Operators are navigating higher taxes and tighter margins while competing against offshore alternatives that don’t face the same cost base.

Regulators elsewhere have drawn the same conclusion — enforcement against unlicensed offshore operators has become a priority across multiple jurisdictions because licensing frameworks alone don’t fully solve the problem.

Gaming Americas: What regulatory changes do you think will actually move the needle?

The participation criterion is the biggest one. Beyond that, sweeping AML reforms at the EU level are expected to tighten compliance requirements across member states by 2026. The EU’s own Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 sets the direction clearly — stricter cross-border enforcement, tighter KYC standards, and more scrutiny of payment flows. That could meaningfully close the gap between licensed and unlicensed markets over time.

Gaming Americas: What’s your overall read on where Sweden’s market goes from here?

Sweden has built something real. The self-exclusion system had around 134,500 registered users as of late 2025, and the legal framework has teeth. The question is whether the policy choices around taxation and bonus restrictions are calibrated correctly. If licensed operators cannot compete on their merits, enforcement alone won’t close the channelization gap. That conversation is the most important one in Swedish gambling right now, and the broader AML standards taking shape across the industry will also play a role.

The post Inside Sweden’s Changing Gambling Landscape with Casinor.com appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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Gamblers Connect Strengthens Trust with Launch of Verified Sources Panel

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Gamblers Connect, the independent B2B iGaming media platform, has introduced a Verified Sources panel that appears at the bottom of every article, linking each factual claim directly to named primary documents hosted on the original source’s own domain.

The panel lists the specific sources consulted, identifies the issuing authority, and includes editorial notes explaining what has been verified and where the limits of the available evidence exist. Positioned immediately beneath the article body, each source is presented in the order it was consulted and includes the responsible individual or office where applicable.

Each entry also includes relevant disclosure tags drawn from the newsroom’s editorial taxonomy, and a direct hyperlink to the original document on the source’s own domain, allowing readers to verify the reporting in a single click.

The initiative responds to widespread practices in online publishing where sources are hidden, paraphrased or omitted altogether, leaving readers to rely on trust rather than independently verifiable evidence.

Luka Dimitrijevic, Partnerships & Operations Lead at Gamblers Connect, said: “Trust is not something a media outlet can declare. It is something the reader gives, and only once they can see the documents the story was built from. The Verified Sources panel exists so that verification is never more than one click away. If a claim in a story is worth making, the source behind it is worth linking to.”

The post Gamblers Connect Strengthens Trust with Launch of Verified Sources Panel appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Esports World Cup: Level Up Returns to Prime Video June 26 with Season Two

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Esports World Cup: Level Upreturns for its second season on June 26, with all five episodes dropping that day exclusively on Prime Video. Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler (Martha (Netflix), Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (Apple TV)), the five-part docuseries goes inside the human stories behind the world’s largest esports competition, following players, Clubs and families through the pressure and ambition of the 2025 Esports World Cup.

Set in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the seven-week event, the new season follows the chase for the $70 million prize pool and the EWC Club Championship, while showing the personal journeys at the heart of the competition. The series captures what it takes to compete on a global stage where one match can change a career, a season can define a Club, and a single moment can turn a player into a star.

Produced by This Machine (a part of Sony Pictures Television), with director R.J. Cutler,  showrunner John Dorsey and executive producers Jane Cha Cutler, Trevor Smith, Elise Pearlstein and Mark Blatty all returning for the second season, Esports World Cup: Level Up takes a vérité-style approach to esports, capturing the sacrifice, stakes, and rising fame of the world’s top competitive gamers.

Featured players include Jake “Boaster” Howlett (Fnatic; VALORANT), Vivi “Vivian” Indrawaty (Team Vitality; MLBB),  Kasimili “Soka” Tongamoa (Team Falcons; Call of Duty: Warzone), Xiao Hai (KuaiShou Gaming; Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves) and Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren (Mongolz; Counter-Strike). To bring the players’ personal stories to the forefront, the film’s crew was on set in Riyadh for seven weeks and also traveled to locations across the U.K., U.S. and Indonesia for rare at-home visits.

Standout storylines woven throughout the series include:

  • Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid, Chess) – Widely considered the greatest chess player ever, Carlsen faces the isolation of dominance, with no traditional peaks left to conquer. His story follows his shift into esports, where a new generation of challengers awaits.

  • Boaster (Fnatic, Valorant) – As Valorant debuts at the event, the British competitor’s journey from aspiring actor to title contender shows there’s no single path to success, shaped by resilience through personal and professional setbacks.

  • Xiao Hai (KSG, Street Fighter) – A reigning champion shaped by strict discipline, Xiao Hai was competing against adults by age six. Now a father, he balances global competition with family life.

  • Vivian (Team Vitality, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) – Competing for a life-changing prize, Vivian’s story centers on overcoming recent setbacks and confronting childhood trauma.

  • The Mongolz & bLitz (Counter-Strike 2) – Led by their star player bLitz, this grassroots Mongolian team has risen from obscurity to national prominence, becoming symbols of pride and perseverance.

  • Soka (Team Falcons, Call of Duty: Warzone) – The reigning champion faces pressure on multiple fronts, dealing with rivalries from former teammates while navigating a turbulent home life.

  • Coach ArSy (Team Liquid, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) – Offering a rare coaching perspective, ArSy draws on a difficult upbringing to lead and inspire his team’s pursuit of redemption.

    “Level Up captures the human side of what we are building with the Esports World Cup,” said Ralf Reichert, CEO, Esports Foundation. “EWC creates the stage: the best games, the best Clubs, the best players, life-changing stakes and moments that bring together a global gaming community of billions. The documentary takes you closer to the people inside those moments: their pressure, their ambition, their families and the stories that make esports meaningful to a new generation.”

    “This next chapter deepens our exploration of a global phenomenon that is as much about human ambition and identity as it is about competition,” said Cutler. “Esports is one of the most dynamic cultural movements of our time. In season two, we continue to chronicle not just the competition, but the lives, dreams, and sacrifices of the players at the center of it, revealing a world that is both intensely personal and globally resonant.”

    Around those player journeys, the series also captures the wider cultural energy of the Esports World Cup, where sport, music, entertainment and gaming meet. In addition to elite competition, Level Up showcases moments from a star-studded lineup of musical artists and athletes, including opening headliner Post Malone, who shows off his gaming skills backstage; grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, who triumphs in his first chess esports event; and football icon Cristiano Ronaldo, who ushers the Club Championship trophy to the stage in a dramatic closing ceremony.

    The magnitude of the Esports World Cup is also seen through the reactions of some of the world’s biggest sports and entertainment figures, including reigning F1 champion Lando Norris; Brazilian football legends Ronaldo Nazario and Kaká, who go one-on-one in an EA FC showmatch; professional footballer Alisha Lehmann; skateboarder Tony Hawk; and tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who stated: “The crowd, the atmosphere, is literally better than Wimbledon or any Grand Slam.”

    The Esports World Cup 2025 marked a defining moment in competitive gaming. In its second year, EWC reached 750 million viewers worldwide and generated 350 million hours watched, with peak concurrent viewership of nearly 8 million during the League of Legends at EWC ’25 tournament. Coverage was delivered across 28 platforms through 97 broadcast partners and more than 800 channels in 35 languages. Twenty-five tournaments spanning 24 games featured more than 2,000 players representing approximately 200 Clubs from over 100 countries.

    The 2026 edition of the Esports World Cup will be held in Paris, France from July 6 through August 23, as the top Clubs in the world compete for $75 million and the 2026 EWC Club Championship trophy.

The post Esports World Cup: Level Up Returns to Prime Video June 26 with Season Two appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Tonybet Secures Alberta iGaming License as Regulated Market Opens

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Tonybet, an international iGaming operator already licensed in Ontario and Kahnawake, today announced that it has received an iGaming license from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC), clearing the company to operate in Alberta’s regulated online gaming market.

The license allows Tonybet to enter Alberta, Canada’s second province to introduce a competitive, multi-operator iGaming market following Ontario’s launch in 2022. It also extends Tonybet’s Canadian footprint, reinforcing the company’s position as one of the most broadly licensed operators in the country.

Alberta’s regulated market represents a significant opportunity. The province has an estimated population of nearly 5 million, a strong sports culture, and a regulatory framework designed to channel existing online gaming activity into a licensed, player-protected environment. Tonybet intends to bring the same localized approach that has driven its growth in Ontario – combining regionally relevant sports betting markets, responsible gaming tools, and dedicated customer support – to Alberta from day one.

“Alberta is taking the right approach – building a regulated market that puts player protection and operational standards at the center from the start. That’s exactly the kind of environment we want to operate in. We’ve spent years proving in Ontario that you can grow a business and maintain the highest compliance standards at the same time – registrations and gross gaming revenue in the province both grew by 52% in 2025, with responsible gaming embedded in that success rather than working against it. Securing this license means we can bring the same commitment to Alberta, and we plan to be fully operational in the market,” said Dmitry Arabuli, CEO of Tonybet.

Tonybet has already begun preparations for its Alberta launch, including platform localization, integration with the province’s centralized self-exclusion system, and commercial onboarding with the Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC).

The post Tonybet Secures Alberta iGaming License as Regulated Market Opens appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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