The betting operator says traffic to unlicensed sites has risen tenfold since 2019.

Sweden.- The Swedish horseracing betting operator AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) has issued a warning over channelisation in Sweden. It believes that channelisation to licensed gambling sites could be as low as 70 per cent.

Its latest report suggests that traffic to unlicensed gambling sites has risen tenfold since 2019 according to its tracking. As a result, the channelisation rate in Q3 would have been between 70 and 82 per cent, the operator claims. That would be below the 82 per cent rate claimed by the national gambling regulator Spelinspektionen.

That rate would be slightly higher than what ATG estimated for Q3 2023 (68 to 81 per cent). However, it would still be a long way off the government’s target of 90 per cent. 

The online casino vertical appears to be worst affected, with channelisation of just 60 to 75 per cent. That compares to 77 to 87 per cent for sports betting. The range of estimates is based on an assumption that players spend 10 times more on unlicensed sites at the upper end and 20 times more at the lower end. It’s not clear how probable that is.

The ATG noted that of the 20 most popular unlicensed websites, 18 had the same platform providers as licensed operators. Eight sites offered direct deposits from and withdrawals to Swedish banks and only two were on Spelinspektionen’s black list.

ATG said the most popular unlicensed website in Q3 was Unlimitcasino.com, which received 159,320 visitors. It was followed by Refuelcasino.com, with 129,540 visitors, and Luckyjungle.com, with 114,329. The latter, which launched last year, saw the biggest growth. All three are operated by Infiniza Limited.

ATG CEO Hasse Lord Skarplöth repeated his argument that the government’s stance on regulation was proving to be counterproductive and was helping the black market by making licensed offerings less attractive. Skarplöth has been highly critical of Sweden’s gambling tax hike this year, which he says should not apply to horseracing betting sector.

He said: “Unlicensed gambling is estimated to have a gross turnover of up to SEK150bn (€12.99bn), equivalent to the cost of running all Swedish primary schools. To make such high demands on us licensed gambling companies while these enormous sums escape regulation and control is both unreasonable and counterproductive.

“ATG will do what we can to contribute to the fight against the unlicensed gambling companies continuing day by day, month by month until licensed companies have a monopoly on gambling in Sweden.”

For Q3, ATG’s revenue was SEK1.29bn (€112.6m), a drop of 4.7 per cent year-on-year. However, profit was down by 19 per cent owing to the increase in gambling tax in Sweden, which was raised from 18 to 22 per cent of gross gambling revenue from July 1.

Skarplöth has dubbed this a ‘horse tax’ and has been calling for a differentiated tax rate for betting on horses and for the increase to apply to online casino gaming only. It had been reported that the Swedish parliament might consider lowering the new tax rate on gross gambling revenue following a proposal from Moderate Party MP Carl Nordblom.