Sports betting provider Kambi Group plc has extended its partnership with Paf, the state-owned operator of Finland’s autonomous Åland region.

First established in 2010, the longstanding relationship has boosted Paf’s international profile, with Kambi’s online sportsbook technology helping the operator expand across Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Spain and Sweden. 

The extension will allow Paf to keep leveraging Kambi’s Turnkey solutions not only for its flagship offering, but also for its other brands Speedybet and Golden Bull.

Christer Fahlstedt, CEO of Paf, highlighted the partnership’s extension as the “natural choice” for the Åland operator after years of results-driven collaboration with Kambi.

Werner Becher, CEO of Kambi, added: “We are proud to announce this latest contract renewal with Paf, growing Kambi’s relationship with one its longest standing partners. 

“We are enthused to continue working closely with Paf, empowering them with our premium sports betting products and supporting their strategic growth ambitions”.

Åland gambling independent from Finland 

Paf is headquartered at and licensed in Åland – an archipelago of around 6,700 islands clustered in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. Whilst the main language is Swedish, the autonomous territory is considered to be a part of Finland.

What’s interesting about the region is that it is fully self-governing, and therefore has its own gambling jurisdiction separate from that of Finland, where the Finnish state operator Veikkaus holds a monopoly.

In Åland, the only licensed operator is Paf – which is granted exclusive rights over land-based and online gambling by the local autonomous administration, by which it is also controlled.

On the topic of Finland, the country wants to break up the Veikkaus monopoly model and replace it with a licensed market by January 2027. The first draft laws are already being put together, with policymakers aiming to enforce the revamped Gambling Act as soon as possible so that operators and suppliers can start applying for licences early on.

However, it remains to be seen how the Nordic country’s new gambling framework will effectively synergise with Åland’s own gambling regulations.