For most people, January 1, 2019 is seen as the beginning of online gaming in Sweden. But for AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) and Svenska Spel, they had been online for several years.

Svenska Spel, the country’s state lottery, had a monopoly on many forms of gambling in the country. In addition to lotteries, it operated and continues to operate the land-based brand Casino Cosmopol, the Vegas chain of slot machines and the online-focused brand Sport & Casino.

ATG, meanwhile, focused on horse racing and had a monopoly for this vertical.

Of course, it would not be correct to say that there were no other operators operating in Sweden, which had a thriving online gray market before 2019.

“From our side, we got more competition formally from January 1, 2019. But in reality it was not a big change because we already had 20 competitors,” states ATG CEO Hasse Lord Skarplöth.

Transparency is the key to safer gaming

But both Svenska Spel CEO Patrik Hofbauer and Skarplöth cite the reregulation as a contributing cause to a problem each has identified: a lack of confidence in the gaming sector.

“Before we entered the reregulation, in the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019, there was a massive increase in advertising from gambling companies,” says Hofbauer. “And also quite aggressive advertising because everyone is trying to protect market share or gain market share.

“It was a lot about online casino; it was a lot about bonuses, free spins and fast payouts, things like that. So all of this together contributed to not trying to be understood but to giving the industry a bad name.

“And this has continued. Public opinion about advertising by gambling and gaming companies has been very negative.”

Improved reporting

This lack of confidence was the reason both operators announced their latest initiativeone that ties them together at a time when they are just two of many licensed Swedish operators.

The two operators both pledged to report four key responsible gaming statistics twice a year to increase industry transparency around safer gaming.

– All in all, I think that transparency and information are the key to understanding trust, says Skarplöth.

The commercial operator Kindred showcases the current Swedish landscape and joins the two ex-monopolies as part of the program. The Unibet operator previously led its own efforts to increase reporting on responsible gambling.

Each of the three operators will report the proportion of customers who were contacted following the discovery of harmful gambling behaviour.

In addition, they will report how much these players reduced their gambling on average and the percentage of customers who chose to self-exclude after an interaction.

Svenska Spel and ATG want to change their opinion

So will it have an effect?

– My belief is that we can change our minds, otherwise we shouldn’t be doing this, says Skarplöth.

However, he and Svenska Spel’s Hofbauer both state that it will not be easy.

“It should be seen as a first step in a long-term investment to make the gambling industry more transparent,” says Hofbauer. “Remember, the primary audience was our stakeholders.”

This will help improve the image of the industry and ultimately change public opinion about the sector.

“But we have to understand that this is not a sprint, it’s more like a marathon. This is going to take some time.”

Part of the challenge may be getting the public to understand the statistics and believe that the operators are making a difference. If trust in the industry is low, the public may not trust that it is truly transparent.

Skarplöth believes that this first step will engage those who have an interest in the numbers.

“The most important thing is that those who are interested in them get them and I think it’s likely that not everyone in the audience will go into the details, but they will realize that we are transparent and that also sends a message,” says Skarplöth.

Which KPIs do Svenska Spel and ATG track?

Both Hofbauer and Skarplöth hope that more companies will get on board and report the same data in the future. To encourage this, says Hofbauer, all key figures selected as operators in Sweden were already required to collect and report to the national regulatory authority.

“The starting point was actually that we were looking for data that all licensed gambling companies were obliged to report to the Spelinskpektionen, the supervisory authority in the country,” says Hofbauer. “And we agreed on four key figures, the ones we judged to be of most interest to the stakeholders.”

According to Hofbauer, other operators are already considering getting on board.

“We received a positive response from several other gaming companies that are interested in joining the initiative,” he said. “And of course there’s strength in numbers here. The more colleagues in the industry get involved, the better. And remember, we used existing data. No one needs to reinvent the wheel.”