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Veikkaus’ digital gaming market share increased by 3 percentage points
2023 was a successful year for Veikkaus’ digital channel initiatives, and the company’s overall result was in line with its target. 180,000 new people registered as Veikkaus customers, and Veikkaus’ customer base now totals over 2.5 million registered customers.
Digital gaming grew by 4.5 percentage points and totalled nearly 55% of Veikkaus’ gross gaming revenue. Veikkaus channelled its development investments particularly into its digital channel, where the games created by Veikkaus’ own gaming studio also accounted for a large share of the gross gaming revenue generated by the company’s online casino, eArpa service, and other offerings. In addition, preparations were made during the year to ensure that Veikkaus would be ready for the customer registration requirement that will apply to all of its games from the beginning of 2024. Veikkaus is also the first gaming company in the world to require its customers to register when purchasing or redeeming physical scratch cards and lottery tickets, to ensure a safer gambling environment for all.
Veikkaus in 2023:
- The Veikkaus Group’s actual sales revenue in 2023 totalled EUR 1,033.1 million (-3.5% compared to 2022). The actual sales revenue includes the gross gaming revenue from gambling activities and turnover from other business activities.
- Veikkaus Group’s profit for the fiscal year was EUR 578.5 million (-13.7 %) while operating profit was EUR 573.6 million (-14.5 %). The decline in the result was due to an increase in the lottery tax, one time cost entries made as a result of the cooperation negotiations in the autumn, and significant investments in the Group’s future.
- The financial profit of parent company Veikkaus Oy for 2023 was EUR 585.0 million (-14.0%), and the operating profit was EUR 580.2 million (-14.7%). Veikkaus’ gross gaming revenue totalled EUR 1,032.0 million (-3.6 %). The decline was partly the result of Veikkaus’ responsibility measure, i.e. the identification requirement for physical ticket-based game players that came into force in May 2023.
- The lottery tax paid to the central government on gross gaming revenue increased by 1.6 percentage points from the previous year’s figure of 3.4%, amounting to 5% for the fiscal year. In 2023, Veikkaus Oy paid EUR 51.7 million in lottery tax, which is EUR 15.4 million more than the previous year.
- In 2023, authenticated gambling accounted for 90.6% (+11.1 percentage points) of Veikkaus’ domestic gambling activities. From 1 January 2024, all Veikkaus games can only be played by registered customers, who must identify themselves every time they play.
- At the end of 2023, Veikkaus had approximately 2,520,000 registered customers. The number of registered customers increased by approximately 180,000 (+8.0 %) during the year.
The long-running trend of gambling shifting to the digital channel continued in 2023, and 54.8% of gross gaming revenue from Veikkaus’ consumer-oriented gambling activities was derived from the digital channel (+4.5 percentage points). According to the estimate of H2 Gambling Capital, Veikkaus accounted for around 54% (+3 percentage points) of the Finnish digital gambling market for the year.
– Veikkaus’ profits and performance in 2023 were as expected, and we can be satisfied with these as a whole. The year was particularly successful for our online games, and Veikkaus will continue to deepen its development investments in its digital channel, says Veikkaus CFO Regina Sippel.
In terms of gross gaming revenue, the most successful of Veikkaus’ game groups was its online casino (digital automated games and digital table games), whose gross gaming revenue totalled EUR 184.0 million (+6.1%). This growth was particularly boosted by the company’s successful game releases.
Veikkaus’ most-played games were Eurojackpot and Lotto. The gross gaming revenue for Eurojackpot, which is drawn twice a week, was EUR 151.1 million (+0.0%). During the year under review, Lotto’s gross gaming revenue amounted to EUR 136.5 million (-8.9%).
2023 was the last year when Veikkaus Oy’s profit was settled to any beneficiary ministries. Beginning from 2024, Veikkaus Oy’s revenues will be directed to the state budget without any pre-defined beneficiaries.
All games to be covered by the identification requirement
Veikkaus began mandating the registration of players as Veikkaus customers for ticket-based games in mid-May. The impacts of the identification requirement on gaming have been as expected. Veikkaus also made preparations for the identification requirement for scratch card games, which entered into force on 1 January 2024 and meant that all Veikkaus games now require identification.
– Today, all of our games, including all physical scratch cards, are subject to the identification requirement. This means that we have become a worldwide pioneer in ensuring the responsibility of our gambling operations, says Susanna Saikkonen, Vice President for Sustainability at Veikkaus.
The identification of players enables a safer gambling environment where customers can be offered various services, such as loss and money transfer limits, and the possibility of self-exclusion of all games. The data obtained through identified gaming activities can also be used to prevent and reduce the harms of gambling.
– Using the data, we can analyse our players’ gambling habits and identify the signs of high-risk gambling. In 2023, our gambling harm prediction system helped us make over 3,700 calls to at-risk players, and we also introduced an automation-based care and communication model for high-risk level customers. In particular, we found that advance messages about calls, attempted calls, and the discussions that took place had a clear impact on the number of customers who decided to set a self-exclusion for themselves, Saikkonen explains.
From the perspective of preventing gambling problems, it will be vital to have other gambling companies operating in Finland follow Veikkaus’ example in complying with the same responsibility rules. The Government Programme states that Finland intends to introduce a partial multi-licence system at the beginning of 2026. It will be important to keep to the schedule that has been set. The new system will allow for the necessary tools and measures for preventing gambling problems. Every extra day in an environment without common rules is a day too late.
Veikkaus subsidiary Fennica Gaming expanded rapidly
During the year, the objective of Veikkaus subsidiary Fennica Gaming, which focuses on Veikkaus’ international business-to-business operations, was to expand the eArpa service to new markets, which it performed successfully. In 2023, the company delivered games to three continents and eight state-owned gaming companies. By the end of the year, Finnish online lotteries were available in the Nordic countries, the Baltic States, Central Europe, and America.
– Fennica Gaming’s corporate customers have been very satisfied with the quality of our games as well as Fennica Gaming’s service level, expertise, and the reliability of our deliveries. With these new markets, we have learned a lot about how we can best add value to our corporate customers’ business activities. We believe that our rapid expansion will also continue in 2024, says Timo Kiiskinen, CEO of Fennica Gaming.
Latest News
Grupo EGB projeta aumento de 45% no volume de atendimentos durante a Copa do Mundo
Para absorver pico de demanda, companhia amplia operação interna em 55% e reforça áreas de risco, suporte e monitoramento preventivo
A proximidade da Copa do Mundo levou o Grupo EGB, responsável pelas marcas Esportes da Sorte, Onabet e Lottu, a preparar sua maior estrutura operacional desde o início da regulamentação do setor no Brasil. A companhia projeta um aumento de 45% no volume de interações durante o torneio, com expectativa de salto de 230 mil para 335 mil contatos mensais em canais de atendimento como chat, e-mail e voz.
Para absorver esse crescimento, o grupo ampliou em mais de 55% seu quadro total de colaboradores ao longo dos últimos doze meses, passando de 378 funcionários, em junho de 2025, para 586 profissionais em junho de 2026. As contratações foram concentradas principalmente nos polos de Recife (PE) e São Paulo (SP), com foco nas áreas de atendimento, tecnologia, risco e jogo responsável.
Duas áreas estratégicas concentraram metade das admissões realizadas no período: Atendimento, com 97 novos profissionais, e Risco e Jogo Responsável, que recebeu 60 novos especialistas para reforçar o monitoramento preventivo e a capacidade de resposta durante o Mundial.
“A preparação operacional para a Copa envolve não apenas ganho de escala, mas principalmente reforço da qualidade e da segurança da experiência do usuário. Nosso foco é garantir uma estrutura preparada para responder com agilidade e responsabilidade em um período de aumento expressivo da demanda”, afirma Roberta Cinti, Head de Pessoas e Cultura do Grupo EGB.
Além do reforço nas equipes, o Grupo EGB promoveu ajustes na jornada digital de autoatendimento e nas Unidades de Resposta Audível (URA), buscando reduzir fricções operacionais e otimizar o fluxo de demandas estritamente informativas, como dúvidas sobre regulamentos e termos promocionais. A estratégia visa liberar os analistas humanos para interações complexas e que exijam maior sensibilidade analítica.
A estratégia também inclui a ampliação do uso de ferramentas de inteligência artificial voltadas ao monitoramento preventivo de comportamento. Historicamente, os atendimentos relacionados à área de risco e jogo responsável representam cerca de 5% do volume total mensal de contatos da companhia (cerca de 11.500 atendimentos).
Os sistemas utilizados pela empresa analisam indicadores considerados atípicos em tempo real, como tempo excessivo de sessão contínua, frequência elevada de navegação e movimentações financeiras fora do padrão habitual, permitindo que as equipes especializadas realizem avaliações preventivas quando necessário.
O uso de tecnologia aplicada ao monitoramento e à prevenção funciona como uma camada preditiva de proteção ao usuário, fortalecendo a capacidade operacional do Grupo EGB em períodos de alta movimentação. A combinação entre inteligência artificial, acompanhamento especializado e suporte humano são pilares importantes da construção de uma experiência mais segura e sustentável para o usuário.
A movimentação faz parte do planejamento operacional do Grupo EGB para o período da Copa, combinando expansão de estrutura, investimentos em tecnologia e reforço das áreas ligadas à experiência do usuário para garantir que a experiência do Mundial permaneça estritamente no campo do lazer e da aposta segura.
The post Grupo EGB projeta aumento de 45% no volume de atendimentos durante a Copa do Mundo appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
game-launch
From Game Launch to Player Discovery: Why the Slot Market Has a Distribution Problem
The online slot market has no shortage of new content. The harder question for suppliers and operators is whether players will ever find it.
Game studios continue to release new titles at a rapid pace, while aggregators make it easier for operators to add broad portfolios through a single technical integration. The result is a market where access to content is becoming less of a differentiator, but visibility inside increasingly crowded casino lobbies is becoming far more important.
Recent launches illustrate the scale of the issue. Caesars Entertainment became the first online casino operator to introduce a group of Aristocrat Interactive slot titles in West Virginia in March, bringing games including 5 Dragons and Fu Dai Lian Lian Panda to several Caesars-operated products in the state. Elsewhere, Spinmatic has expanded its content on Stoiximan in Greece, while suppliers continue to announce new Hold&Win releases, jackpot formats, branded games and feature-led titles across regulated markets.
For operators, adding games is relatively straightforward. Ensuring those games are discovered, understood and played is more difficult.
A typical online casino lobby can now contain thousands of titles from dozens of suppliers. Players may arrive looking for a specific provider, a familiar mechanic such as Hold&Win or Megaways, a progressive jackpot, a themed release, or simply the game they saw promoted elsewhere. Most will not browse through a catalogue at random for long enough to find a newly launched title.
That creates a distribution problem for game studios. A launch can be technically successful, reach multiple operators and appear across several markets, but still struggle to gain meaningful attention once it enters a live casino environment.
The challenge is not unique to slots. Streaming platforms, app stores and digital marketplaces all face similar issues when supply outpaces the attention available to any individual product. In iGaming, however, the situation is complicated by market-specific certification, different operator partnerships, responsible gambling rules and the commercial importance of keeping players engaged without overwhelming them.
Aggregators sit at the centre of that process. Their original value proposition was simple: give operators access to large volumes of casino content through one integration. That remains important, particularly as operators seek faster launch cycles and broader supplier coverage.
However, portfolio size alone is no longer enough. An operator that adds hundreds of additional games does not automatically create a better customer experience. Without effective lobby design, filters, recommendation tools and promotional placement, a larger library can make discovery harder rather than easier. The issue becomes one of curation: which games should be surfaced, to whom, and at what moment?
That is increasingly shaping how operators think about game launches. Featured placements, provider takeovers, seasonal campaigns, jackpot races and personalized recommendations are now part of the commercial path between studio and player. A new slot may need more than a prominent position in the “new games” section to gain traction, particularly when it is competing with established titles that already have recognition, search demand and a record of player engagement.
Slot tournaments have become one useful part of that visibility mix. A tournament can give an operator a reason to place a particular title, supplier portfolio or game mechanic in front of players for a defined period, while creating an event around the release rather than relying only on standard bonus messaging.
The format is not a replacement for game quality. A weak title will not become a lasting success because it appears in a leaderboard campaign. However, tournaments, prize drops and network promotions can help solve the initial discovery problem by directing players towards games they may otherwise never encounter in a crowded lobby.
Suppliers are also responding by building more recognisable product identities around their releases. Rather than marketing every new game as a completely separate proposition, studios increasingly develop recurring mechanics, sequel formats and branded families that give players a reference point before they enter the casino lobby.
Hold&Win games are a clear example. The mechanic has become widely used across the market, but suppliers continue to differentiate their versions through theme, volatility, jackpot structures, bonus features and visual presentation. That gives operators more ways to group, promote and recommend games, while giving players a clearer idea of what to expect.
Land-based recognition can play a similar role in regulated online markets. Caesars’ Aristocrat Interactive launch in West Virginia showed how established retail brands can become part of an online product strategy, with familiar titles providing an immediate reference point for players who already know the games from physical casino floors.
The same principle applies to supplier brands. Where players recognise a studio’s catalogue, a provider page or promoted collection can become more useful than a generic list of newly added games. For smaller developers, however, that makes distribution more difficult, because the strongest lobby placements often go to suppliers that already have a record of performance.
This is where operators, aggregators and affiliates increasingly overlap. Operators control the live product environment. Aggregators influence how easily content can be integrated and managed. Suppliers need commercial pathways for their games to reach the right audiences. Affiliates and comparison platforms, meanwhile, often shape discovery before a player even reaches an operator’s lobby.
On the consumer side, this has made independent sources covering online slots increasingly relevant. Players are not only comparing welcome offers; they are looking at provider coverage, game libraries, promotions, payment methods and whether a platform actually carries the types of slots they want to play.
That does not mean every game launch requires a major promotional campaign. Some titles will gain momentum through strong performance data, word of mouth or a place in a popular provider catalogue. However, as the supply of games continues to grow, the market is likely to reward operators and suppliers that treat discovery as a product discipline rather than an afterthought.
The slot market’s next competitive advantage may not come from who can add the most games. It may come from who can help players find the right ones.
The post From Game Launch to Player Discovery: Why the Slot Market Has a Distribution Problem appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
CS2 tournament
LEON announces LEON.bet Masters, a new CS2 tournament in Portugal
LEON continues to strengthen its presence in esports with the launch of LEONBET Masters, a new Counter-Strike 2 tournament set to take place from September 24 to 27 at the SAW Esports Arena in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.
The tournament will bring together 16 teams competing for a €30,000 prize pool and valuable VRS points, which play a key role in qualification opportunities for major international events, including the Singapore Major later this year.
LEONBET Masters will feature a group stage with four groups of four teams, followed by playoffs that will determine the tournament champion. The event is expected to attract some of the strongest Tier 2 and Tier 3 teams looking to improve their rankings and continue their path toward the highest level of professional Counter-Strike competition.
The launch of LEONBET Masters marks another step in LEON’s long-term commitment to esports. Over the past few years, the company has actively supported the competitive gaming ecosystem through partnerships with prominent organizations and by hosting its own tournaments across multiple disciplines. Previous initiatives include the LEON Masters Dota tournament, the LEON Masters Deadlock competition, and the LEON Esports Cup Free Fire, further demonstrating the brand’s investment in developing competitive gaming.
LEON currently partners with German esports organization GamerLegion, supporting both its Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 rosters. The company also partners with teams such as SAW, one of Portugal’s most recognizable esports organizations, and FlyQuest, further strengthening its presence across key international esports markets.
By creating LEONBET Masters, LEON aims to provide emerging teams with additional opportunities to compete at a high level, gain valuable ranking points, and showcase their talent on a larger stage.
Additional information about the participating teams, tournament format, broadcast talent, and where to watch the event can be found on the official tournament page here:
About LEON
LEON is an international sportsbook and online casino brand with over 17 years of industry experience. The company actively supports esports through strategic partnerships, sponsorships, and competitive gaming initiatives, working with organizations and communities across multiple regions worldwide.
The post LEON announces LEON.bet Masters, a new CS2 tournament in Portugal appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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