Hippos ATG says it has been granted a Finnish gambling licence ahead of July 2027 market opening

Hippos ATG, a joint venture between Swedish horse racing operator ATG and the Finnish racing association Suomen Hippos, has announced that it has been granted a gambling licence in Finland. The company said the licence covers a five-year period, based on an image of the document shared on social media.

Finland is moving away from its state-run monopoly model and will open its online gambling market to private operators on 1 July 2027 as part of a broad regulatory reform. Hippos ATG Oy is among the companies preparing to enter the liberalised market.

CEO Mikael Bäcke said the business had been built from scratch in Finland, with operating models designed to meet the requirements of the new legislation. He described a positive licensing decision as the most important prerequisite for market entry and said the company could now concentrate more on its products and on finalising its operational set-up.

Hippos ATG is the second operator to say its application has succeeded. Malta-based Wildz Group announced on 15 October that it had received a Finnish licence. However, the National Police Board, which oversees the application process, has not yet officially confirmed the outcome of any application. The publication reporting the news said it had asked the authority for comment.

ATG, formally AB Trav och Galopp, is Sweden's horse racing monopoly operator. It announced the joint venture with Suomen Hippos in 2025, and the venture later decided to use the ATG brand at launch because of its recognition. The company previously said it would use ATG's in-house gaming platform, which it described as a cost-effective solution.

Around 80 companies have applied for Finnish licences so far. Some market experts have raised concerns about oversaturation given Finland's small population, although the country's sizeable grey market is expected to be addressed through channelisation. Chief Compliance Officer Antti Koivula said at SBC Lisbon in September that the market would open with an uneven playing field. In his view, current monopoly operator Veikkaus and offshore-licensed operators already active in Finland hold customer databases that could give them a head start over newcomers starting from scratch.