The Finnish online gambling brand plans to expand into new markets.

Finland.- The Finnish online gambling brand Finlandia Casino has changed its name as ahead of a planned expansion into new markets. Fearing that its existing name was too country specific, it’s undertaking a rebrand that involves changing just one letter, becoming Winlandia.

The group has confirmed that it plans to apply for a gambling licence in Finland once the government opens up the market to competition. Until now, it has been targeting the country under a Maltese licence.

It thinks the rebrand will also help it expand in the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Three of those are regulated markets. Norway is not. Longer term, it’s eyeing Canada and New Zealand.

The company said: “Winlandia plans to stand out from its rivals by tailoring the player experience it offers across games, payments, bonuses and customer service in each market, delivered with a playful Nordic twist and the Finnish Sisu.

“The decision to rebrand from Finlandia Casino came from a desire to expand internationally, but also to keep pace with the decision to dissolve the gambling monopoly in Finland and open the market to other licensed operators over the coming years.”

Winlandia said its decision to expand into new markets was partly due to it seeing sign-ups from outside of Finland.

Christoffer Grönlund, head of acquisitions and PR, said: “We are so excited to have rebranded to Winlandia and to take our amazing casino experience to more markets such as the UK, Sweden, Norway and Denmark in the first phase. In the second phase, we will enter Canada and New Zealand.”

The Finnish government plans to end Veikkaus’ gambling monopoly in the country by 2026, allowing private companies to apply for licences to offer both sports betting and online casino. Veikkaus itself will be divided into separate companies within the same group, reversing a 2017 merger that combined the sports betting brand Veikkaus with the Raha-automaattiyhdistys slots operator and horse race betting operator Fintoto.

Veikkaus has welcomed the move. Reporting H1 results, its CEO said the operator was strategically prepared for the competition.