The Swedish government used to have monopoly over gambling via the state-controlled companies Svenska Spel and ATG. The market was not regulated then and unreliable betting sites appeared side by side with quality sites. That made it difficult for Swedish consumers to know which companies to trust and where to play. This was one of the reasons why the Swedish government decided to regulate the Swedish gambling market, they wanted to increase the security of Swedish players. This has created a market for unlicensed casinos and betting sites, called ”betting utan svensk licens”.
Swedish license impacts on MMA Betting
On the first of January 2019, a new gambling law came into effect. Since then, everyone active on the Swedish market must have a Swedish license. In order to get a Swedish license from the Swedish gaming authority Spelinspektionen, gaming companies must meet a number of requirements.
For example, gaming companies now had to pay 18% of their net profit in tax every year. This was another reason why the government chose to introduce a national license and regulate Sweden’s gambling market – they wanted to get the tax revenues that had previously disappeared to other countries.
A number of measures were also introduced to reduce the risk of players developing gambling problems. For example, a three-second rule was introduced for slots, which means that players must wait for three seconds between each spin. They also introduced Spelpaus, a national self-exclusion service to which all Swedish gaming companies must be connected. When a player activates the service he or she won’t be able to do any gambling on the Swedish market, neither online nor offline.
The requirements for Swedish gambling companies:
- They have to pay 18% in taxes every year.
- They’re just allowed to give away one bonus per player. This bonus should be given as a welcome bonus.
- Betting by paying credit is prohibited.
- The gaming company has to verify the identity of its players.
- The gaming company has to be connected to the Spelpaus registry.
- The player has to set limits for his/her losses and deposits.
- The gaming company’s marketing has to be reasonable.
- The gaming company have an obligation to take care of its players, so that they don’t develop gambling problems.
The Swedish restrictions due to covid-19
Back in March, when the corona pandemic started to spread in Sweden, the government advised people to work from home, if they had the possibility. This led to more swedes spending more time at home. Not long after that, the government started to notice that the activity on Swedish gaming sites had increased.
Some people with long professional experience of working with gambling problems spoke up. They said that the pandemic would lead to more people developing gambling problems. These problems could worsen the negative development of society that the pandemic had already started, with financial worries and mental illness.
The government therefore chose to introduce new, even tougher restrictions, based on directives from Ardalan Shekarabi, minister of social security. The restrictions came into force on the second of July and will apply for the rest of the year. Recently, however, they suggested an extension of the restrictions, so we’ll just have to wait and see for how long the restrictions will in fact be effective.
The new regulation entailed the following changes:
- The bonus must not exceed 100 SEK.
- You were no longer allowed to play for more than 5,000 SEK per week.
- Every time you login you have to specify a time limit, for how long you’re going to play.
Betting sites without a Swedish license
The new strict restrictions on Swedish betting sites have probably made some gamblers leave the Swedish market and instead play on betting sites without a swedish license. These sites can offer more and better bonuses and they have no limit to how much you can play each week.
Before the new restriction was introduced, a Danish study was published entitled The Degree of Channelization of the Swedish online Gambling market. According to the study, 40% of Swedish players considered playing at casinos without a Swedish license, or had already done so. 34% of the bettors said they play on betting sites without a Swedish license or would be interested in doing so.
In the study the researchers warned us against implementing further restrictions. They claimed that even more people would start to play at gaming sites without a Swedish license if the Swedish government introduced even more restrictions.
So, how did it turn out? Has the new restriction had the desired effect? Svenska Spel has conducted a survey of 400 customers and asked them various questions about how their gambling habits might have changed since the new restrictions were introduced.
It turns out that four out of ten have started to play less since the new gambling restriction was introduced. At the same time, just over half of those who responded to the survey had stated that they played at the same level or even played more than before.
When the gamblers in the survey had played for SEK 5,000, which is the maximum limit on Swedish sites right now, 33% chose to go over to a foreign gaming company to be able to continue playing. It was especially those who already had gambling problems who chose to continue playing after the barrier of SEK 5,000 had been reached.
With that said, this is only one study and it is not very large one at that. It might be too soon to say what impact the restrictions have had. However, this first and only study is kind of worrying and indicates that the restrictions haven’t had the intended effect, at least not for all types of players.
MMA during covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has made entire countries paralyzed. Most sports organizations has chosen to cancel their sporting events to reduce the spread of the virus. MMA was one of the few sports that chose to continue to organize and conduct matches. The MMA-fighters only get paid when they compete and the coaches get a percentage of the fighter’s salary, so they need to keep competing to make their ends meet.
The UFC and other organizations introduced rules about social distancing and testing at competitions. The pandemic still caused problems, however, especially America’s travel restrictions. So in April, UFC President Dana White announced that the organization was searching for an international meeting place, a Fight Island.
In early June, it became clear that the UFC’s new Fight Island would be Yas Island in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. White also said the UFC would host four events in July. Since the UFC did not have an audience, they did not have to worry about the local timing of the matches. For that reason, they continued to conduct their events at prime time for the East Coast and North America.
UFC 251 was the first event on the Abu Dhabi Fight Island. It was initially planned to take place in Australia in the beginning of June but it was postponed because of the pandemic. Instead it took place the twelfth of July at the new Fight Island.
The matches are conducted in the Flash Forum arena, an indoor arena. Those who enter the arena must go through a special tunnel with disinfectant fog. Training was a challenge for a lot of people as a lot of gyms have closed. It’s also a challenge to keep the recommended social distance while training.