I-Gaming Forum

By Eric Andersson for i-Gamingforum.com | Posted on March 4, 2010

Estonia, the successful Nordic country that has seen a leapfrog economic development since autonmy from the Soviet Union, recently legalized online gaming. A population just short of 1,5 million, numerous expatriated professionals and a location connecting the mature Scandinavian economies and the cash rich Russian Federation have fast tracked a country well on its way to be on par with Western Europe. With 25% of Estonians of Russians descent it is no great leap of mind to assume Estonian operators draws revenue from the Russian Federation. Russia banned gambling in June 2009, and customers move with the speed of light on the internet. 

An already established Estonian license model makes for excellent tax revenue possibly next turning Estonia into a virtual Monaco of Scandinavia. The Estonian government has taken the next step to secure even greater tax revenue.

Today Estonian citizens (including any Russian speaking players) are allowed to play on Estonian-based platforms. In the next step the Government is opening up to international operators in 2011. Numerous applications should be expected as the scope of potential business is tremendous.

Unibet has taken another step in its expansion by entering the global gaming B2B market.
The Group has decided to offer a fully serviced sports betting solution to external customers and as a first customer signed a contract with Paf.

As a first customer, Unibet have today signed a three year exclusive? deal with Paf, licensed by the Åland Provincial Government, for the provision of a full sports betting B2B Solution. The scope of the services includes odds compiling and risk management on an in-house developed proprietary system for fixed odds betting. Paf will also become a customer in the fast growing sports betting pool products SuperToto and SuperScore offered by Unibet.

The Gross Gaming Revenues for the global sports betting market is estimated by independent analysts to be USD 40.9bn for 2009 and the forecast for 2012 is that the global sports betting market will grow to USD 43.4bn.

read more

According to YLE ,The Finnish Slot Machine Association (RAY) has received permission to start offering poker and other casino games online. This follows a government decision announced on Thursday, February 4th.

RAY plans to introduce a variety of internet poker and casino games, which it believes will create an income of around 25 million euros annually.  New government licences come into force on March, 1. RAY hopes to start its new game services by August.

The Finnish National Lottery (Veikkaus) is being allowed to introduce online bingo and similar number-based games. Internet games will be strictly supervised in accordance with government regulations.
Both RAY and the Finnish National Lottery must verify both the address and identity of the player and ensure that no minors participate. Players will also have the right to cap their bets. Similarly, RAY and Veikkaus will be able to set limits on individual players. read more

read more

I-Gaming Forum 2010 is growing every single day.  Presently there are over 31 confirmed speakers, covering the gaming, telecoms, and media sectors.  This year’s panelist coming from organizations such as;

• Svenska Spel
• Virgin Games
• Partouche Group
• British Telecom
• PAF
• And many more…..

In addition to this; 3 completely new conference sessions have been added; with the new focuses for this year being driven towards the French market, developing your player retention strategies, and how to define your commercial partnerships.

Be sure to not miss the session “The public debate for gambling and betting in Scandinavia”, bringing together leading politicians from around the Nordics, giving you the chance to raise your opinions about gaming regulation moving forward.

With Norway increasing its focus to implement UIEGA rulings, Denmark’s focus to regulation, France bid to be online before the 2010 world cup, you really couldn’t have picked a better time to define your business policies.

>> The Scandinavian i-Gaming Forum brings you insights from within the industry as well as cross industry benchmarks, with this year’s main take away’s being:

1. Understanding of Best Practice within Scandinavia, with specific focus on legal developments and marketing knowledge
2. Analysis and feedback on the last 12 months with a specific focus on new developing markets, recent case law and predictions for next 12 months
3. Are your costs spiraling? Listen on how to develop cost-cutting strategies that still give your business true development and power.
Held again, in the prestigious Grand Hotel, we are hosting 3 days of top class networking, high content conferencing, in-depth business meetings, interactive workshops, and world-class business case studies showing you; how to increase your revenue!  What we promise is simple… you will leave Stockholm with a clear insight of where the industry is going over the next 12 months!

If you are looking at having serious business critical conversations that take this industry forward, then we look forward to seeing you in Stockholm this April

Videos from i-gamingforum.com 2009, press the arrows to the left and right on the video screen to navigate thru the interviews. (For full screen view doubble click on the video screen.)

The I-Gamingforum.com Scandinavia in Stockholm April 1, 2009

Interviews from the conference:

Pontus Lindwall, CEO, Betsson

Petter Nylander, CEO, Unibet

Johan Öhman, CEO, Net Entertainment

Marcus Forsell, CEO, Bonnier Gaming

Jake Pollard, Editor, eGamingreview

Quirino Mancini, SCM Partners

Peter Alling, Lawyer, Swedish Gaming Board

William Scott, Boss Media Gtech

Rolf Sims, Minister of Culture

Here is a slide show from the I-Gaming event in Stockholm the 1st of April 2009.

>> Pictures from the Scandinavian Affiliate Super Summit 2009

Interviews from the Affiliate Super Summit in Stockholm 2009:

>> Richard De Waal – Referback

>> Johan Hagenfeldt -  AffliateTipsAgents

>> Jonas Ödman – Bodog

>> Karim Wilkins – RaketheRake

>> Michael Caselli – iGB Affiliate

>> Per Widerström – Mangas Gaming / Expekt.com

Read Bodog Beckys report and see the pictures from the event!

>> Bodog Beckys report

>> See the pictures from the event

The Scandinavian Affiliate Super Summit (25th-27th November) launched with the glitz and glamour that Scandinavian gaming is, held in the Berns Hotel, attendees kick-started the 3 days with a cocktail reception, hosted by Bet24.

The whole conference went down as an event to remember with over 248 delegates in attendance over the course of the three days, 10 exhibitors, 8 strategic conference sessions, 3 exuberant networking parties and VIP guests galore. The cleaners are still trying to piece the Café Opera venue back together after a successful visit from the party going affiliates.  The event warmed-down at the world famous IceBar; where everyone nursed their hangovers with a chilled vodka.

“I think SASS was a great” Richard De Waal – Referback “There were plenty of new affiliates for us to meet, the atmosphere was great, and the host city was fantastic. This was the perfect opportunity for us to make grow our business. We will definitely come back next year”

The SASS is the first ever gaming affiliate show to be held in Scandinavia, and was widely received as a very successful location for affiliate events in the future.  Project Manager Michael Whittam said “It’s very difficult to create a launch event in affiliate marketing, the affiliate conference market is very competitive, our success has been down to one simple winning formula; ensuring we attract the top affiliates that are looking to drive major traffic and providing them with top level conference content.”

“Whilst we know that our delegates are largely here to network, we always aim to provide everyone with something new and unexpected.” Alex Pratt, Head of Events for iGB Events, added “The location attracted huge attention; and this event has definitely established itself on the i-Gaming Calendar.

The Scandinavian Affiliate Super Summit team looks forward to welcoming you back next year with a bigger and better venue and an expected 500 attendees!