With Betsson Group’s Q3 results now out and showing continued growth for the company over the year, Pontus Lindwall, CEO of Betsson AB, spoke with SBC News to go a bit deeper into the highlights.

Conquest for Europe

Starting off with group revenues, Western Europe once again proved to be a favourable market for the company, with Q3 end user revenue standing at €57m – up 27.3% (Q3 ‘24: €44.7m).

And while generally hospitable for business dealings, Western Europe is also a market where the regulatory tectonic plates are constantly shifting. Italy is a prime example of that, where a new regime recently reshaped the gambling landscape.

However, that’s no challenge for Betsson, with Lindwall affirming that the country is still one of the company’s “core markets” in the region.

“Italy is a market where we have put a lot of effort over time,” he said. “I think we have good traction there gaining market share. We’re not the largest operator by far in the market, but we have a good business there and we have great prospects for the future.

“Based on what we’ve seen for the past five to seven years, we have invested heavily into the sponsorship of Inter Milan, which brings us a lot of credibility in the market. And that’s a great foundation for us.”

An offer you can’t refuse

Boosting Betsson’s aggressive expansion not only in Europe but also across the world was the acquisition of Sporting Solutions. According to Lindwall, the integration has had major benefits for the company that have already paid off the deal a little over a year after it was closed.

“Being a client of Sporting Solutions for a very long time, they formed part of our sportsbook offering so that we can now have one of the broadest and most potent sportsbooks in the world. 

“This acquisition was a strategic one in order to make sure that we can continue to develop our offering and continue to be really competitive.

“Even though it’s a B2B business, because we now provide services to other companies, it has a big strategic value for us internally as well.”

Betsson’s Q3 report also highlighted growing investment in developing its B2B profile and sportsbook, an endeavour the company seems keen to achieve all while its B2C revenues continue to see general growth, albeit with some outliers like the Nordic markets.

Some of the upcoming advancements listed by Lindwall include new sportsbook cashout methods on the lower levels, and better infrastructure for quicker market adaptability on the higher levels.

“There’s a lot of investment going into product development. In many ways we see it as a technology race. So we need to do that. I’m very happy that we have the ability to do that.”

Are regulators troublemakers?

Having a solid product offering and continuous growth, however, can be very quickly offset by regulatory movements. For Lindwall, some of the biggest regulatory headwinds that Betsson is currently facing in Europe come from Germany and the Netherlands.

“I think the whole industry is a bit disappointed about the situation in Germany. It’s been a couple of years where the regulator has not listened to the industry at all. And that has put the market in a very bad spot.”

Lindwall is still hopeful for Germany though, adding: “But I’ve recently been hearing that they’re now thinking of moving in the right direction.”

Hopes were more reserved for the Netherlands, however, where this year’s political breakdown was followed by a report from the local regulator, Kansspelautoriteit, that reforms introduced by the now-collapsed government have pushed around half of users towards the black market.

Betsson is not active in the Dutch market, though it has been interested. The firm was due to launch in the country via the acquisition of Holland Gaming Technology, an operator and game developer, but the takeover was called off earlier this year. 

High taxation, increasingly strict regulations and struggling channelisation may have all been factors behind this decision.

“That’s not good,” Lindwall commented on the abovementioned regulatory report. “When you see decreasing channelisation, you have to do something as a politician. You have to look at the regulations. You have to look at the cause.

“Regulators need to recognise that there is a problem. They already did in their statement, so I’m still optimistic. But if you want to take care of the customers, the industry has to be within the regulated market.”

Olé, Olé, Olé

For a few weeks next summer, football will take over the world once again with the World Cup taking place in the Americas. Unsurprisingly, Lindwall highlighted that Betsson sees this as a major opportunity to gain traction in its target markets.

“It’s always good when a big tournament like that happens. We look forward to it a lot and it’s a good opportunity to get some new customers. We normally increase our marketing spend around those events. 

“And of course, we’re going to continue to work on the product so that when the World Cup starts, we have a superior product in the markets important to us.”

Even without the World Cup, there’s still plenty of opportunities to build up your brand awareness through football sponsorships – and Betsson is eyeing them all up.

“We see a lot of opportunities. It’s a very good way for us to communicate our brand and to show all the customers that we are a strong and reliable brand.”

Send me a postcard

As the 2026 World Cup approaches, the Americas – and especially Latin America – present a highly lucrative opportunity for a company like Betsson to hyper-localise its offering. 

“We see LatAm as a very interesting region. It’s huge, it’s growing strongly, it’s currently in the shift from land-based gaming to digital. It suits us very well,” Lindwall added.

Because of the dynamic nature of regulations, however, there might be some challenges ahead in certain countries like Colombia, where the selective tax on gambling was recently hiked.

Similar to the Netherlands, Lindwall reminded that obstructing the industry can lead to more Colombian players migrating to the black market. “We hope that the tax will settle at a normalised level,” he concluded.