Online gambling licences will become effective from 1 July 2027, with 63 licence applications still pending

Finland’s National Police Board (Poliisihallitus) has confirmed that 18 companies have so far received licences to enter the country’s new online gambling market next July.

Poliisihallitus is currently processing a further 63 licence applications, with the processing time estimated to be six to eight months.

While the names of the licensees have been revealed, their iGaming brands and domains have not been confirmed.

“The National Police Board investigates for each applicant whether they fulfil the criteria provided for in the Gambling Act,” said Juho Puisto, senior adviser for the gambling administration of the National Police Board. “For Finnish applicants, we can obtain most of their background information from national registers.

“Most of the applicants are foreign companies. In these cases, it is the applicant’s responsibility to supply the required official reports and other attachments to the National Police Board. A single licence application may involve reviewing up to hundreds of pages of documents.

“I would describe the licence applications currently pending as comprehensive. On the other hand, the documents provided by authorities in various countries differ widely in content and presentation, which means that typically we need to request the applicant to provide supplementary details or explanations. We also ask applicants to augment their descriptions of their own operations if necessary. Having to ask for further information naturally has an impact on processing times.”

Licence applications have been accepted since March and can still be submitted to the Board.

Until the end of June 2027, gambling operations are supervised and licences granted by the National Police Board.

From July 2027, these duties will be taken over by the Finnish Supervisory Agency.

The 18 Finnish licensees (as of 29.10.26):

Amber Entertainment Finland Ltd

Benelongs Ltd

Buccone Trading Limited

Cloudberry Ent Limited

Hippos ATG Oy

Granturo Finland Ltd.

KuuFlip Limited

Nivei Ursi Limited

UnionJack Limited

Pot Luck Club Ltd

RocketLily Ent Limited

Roi Roger Limited

SixthSpin Limited

Skill On Net Ltd

SuomiVeto Oy

Sunflower Gaming Limited

Stare Straight Ltd

YTBlue Limited