Wildz Claims First Finnish Licence as Veikkaus Monopoly Ends

Finland’s online gambling market has been run by a single state operator for decades, but that’s about to change, and Malta-based group Wildz says it’s first in the queue to take advantage. The operator behind Wildz, Caxino, Spinz and several other brands claims to have landed authorisation to offer casino games to Finnish players from 1 July 2027, the date the country’s new licensing regime finally takes effect.

What’s been released

Wildz Group says it has received approval for a Finnish gambling licence, making it the first operator to announce authorisation ahead of the market’s 2027 opening.

Wildz became the first operator to confirm licence approval on Thursday, with up to 75 licence applications having been submitted in Finland by the end of September.

The Malta-based group said the Finnish National Police Board (NPB) had granted the authorisation.

However, the NPB has not publicly confirmed the reported approval, so Wildz’s announcement remains the basis for the claim that it is first.

The company operates Wildz alongside Blingi, Caxino, Chipz, Spinz, Tuplaus and Wheelz, and also offers the Wildz Sports sportsbook.

Wildz chief executive Sam Brown welcomed the development, saying the company’s brands aim to offer Finnish players a safe and engaging product, and noted that the group was looking ahead to the July 2027 launch.
A board member also marked the announcement on LinkedIn, saying preparations for the launch were continuing.

What’s changed

Finland’s gambling regulator will end the state monopoly on online betting and digital casino games, replacing it with a licensing model that aligns the country more closely with Sweden and Denmark.

Finland is moving from a state-controlled gambling model to a licensing system for parts of the online market, with the change scheduled for 1 July 2027 and applications accepted from March 2026.

Not everything is up for grabs, though.
Veikkaus will retain exclusive rights over lotteries, scratch cards, physical slot machines and land-based casino operations through a state-controlled licence structure.
Everything else – online slots, online casino and sports betting – becomes contestable once the new regime switches on.

Interest from operators has been building steadily.
The application process opened in March 2026, and by September the National Police Board had received 75 applications, up from 50 in June, showing growing demand ahead of the July 2027 launch.
Analysts quoted by trade press have flagged a different risk:
the group’s five-year term would cover operations in the new market once the licence regime takes effect, though the approval does not mean Finland’s licensed market is already open.

Where it fits

For UK readers used to a market that opened up to competing operators back in 2005, Finland’s move looks like a familiar story playing out two decades late.
Finland is one of the last European countries to axe its state-owned monopoly system in favour of a liberalised model, following Sweden’s full liberalisation in 2019.
That gradual European trend toward multi-brand, multi-operator markets is the same dynamic that’s shaped the crowded, feature-rich UK landscape this site covers every week.

Wildz’s push into Finland also says something about how groups with a UK-adjacent footprint keep expanding their brand portfolios. A company running seven consumer-facing brands plus a sportsbook under one roof mirrors the multi-brand strategy several UK-facing groups already lean on to segment audiences by game style and tone. Whether Wildz’s claim survives the NPB’s eventual official list remains to be seen, but the episode is a reminder that the appetite for new regulated markets, and the brand-building that goes with it, shows no sign of slowing down.

Sources

• CasinoBeats – Wildz reports Finnish gambling licence ahead of 2027 launch
• iGaming Business – Wildz Group announces Finland’s first online licence approval ahead of market launch
• Next.io – Wildz first iGaming operator to confirm Finland licence award
• SiGMA – Malta-based Wildz first to announce Finnish gambling licence
• iGaming Express – Finland Has Its First Licence Holder Under New Regulatory Regime
• iGamingToday – Wildz Becomes First Online Gaming Operator to Confirm Finland Licence Approval
• GamblingNews – Wildz Becomes the First Holder of a Finnish iGaming License