Online channelization ranged from 69% to 82% throughout the period, according to an ATG -led analysis on illegal gambling activities in Sweden during Q4 that was released Tuesday, March 12.
This falls well short of the government’s long-term goal of 90%, which was established in 2019 when the nation’s regulated online gambling sector began.
The Q4 numbers are only slightly better than the 70% to 82% range that ATG reported for Q3.
Traffic to unlicensed websites has increased tenfold since 2019
ATG presented its Q4 findings, stating that its data indicates that since regulation in 2019, traffic to unlicensed sites in Sweden has surged tenfold.
Channelization for online casinos was significantly lower than that for sports betting, as was the case in Q3. Sports betting ranged from 79% to 88%, while casino channelization was between 59% and 74%, according to ATG.
The operator tracks web traffic to both regulated and unauthorized gambling businesses in Sweden using web analytics software.
It stated that this is done on a quarterly basis and is done continually. “Assumptions about spending per visit derived from various sources and actual web traffic are used to measure the degree of channelization.”
It was discovered that 17 out of the 20 biggest unlawful gambling websites leverage platform providers that are also utilized by operators with licenses. According to ATG, current Swedish legislation shouldn’t allow this.
Additionally, according to ATG, six of these websites allowed players to instantaneously access their bank accounts through BankID, a digital identity system in Sweden that facilitates direct payments and withdrawals from Swedish bank accounts.
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Furthermore, Spelinspektionen’s list of prohibited unlicensed operations included two of the top 20.
The most popular website in Q4 was Luckyjungle.com, an unlicensed website that only made its debut in Sweden in Q3 2023. During that time, 147,284 visits were recorded overall. “In just one year, this site’s traffic has increased from zero to nearly 150,000 visits,” the report stated.
With 113,002 visitors during the quarter, Unlimitcasino.com came in second, but it has been declining since Q2 of last year. The third-most popular website, Refuelcasino.com, attracted 94,456, which was less than Q3.
Ibet.com and GG.bet, which both showed increases in visitor counts in Q4, completed the top five.
Since the number of illegal site visits per quarter has increased over time, long-term trends indicate that the channelization rate is declining.
“Unreasonable” channelization rate is blasted by ATG
ATG CEO Hasse Lord Skarplöth commented on the results and reaffirmed the group’s intention to resolve the matter. He declared that until licensees have a stranglehold on the Swedish market, the group would keep fighting against unlicensed websites.
“The fact that so much gambling still occurs outside of the license system is absurd,” Skarplöth stated. Gambling without a license is a haven for money laundering. Above all, though, Swedish players are left defenseless against unscrupulous actors.
As a result, ATG will make every effort to guarantee that the battle against unlicensed gaming enterprises goes on day in and day out, month in and month out, until the licensed companies control the majority of the gaming market in Sweden.
Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of the Swedish gambling trade organization BOS, stated last month that the government’s current examination of gambling laws is not likely to address the nation’s declining channelization rate.
In an interview with iGB, he called the government’s examination of the Gambling Act “another repressive measure.”
“Liberating the licensed market to make it more appealing to consumers is even more important,” he stated.
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