Hippos ATG claims Finland’s second gambling licence

• Hippos ATG says it has been granted a Finnish licence covering racing, sports betting and online casino.
• The ATG and Suomen Hippos venture is the second operator to announce an award, after Wildz.
• Finland’s licensed market opens on 1 July 2027, ending Veikkaus’s monopoly on online betting and casino.

Hippos ATG, the joint venture between Swedish operator ATG and Finnish trotting association Suomen Hippos, has been granted a licence under Finland’s new Gambling Act. The company announced the decision on 19 October, ahead of the market opening on 1 July 2027.

The licence covers horse racing and sports betting, which will go live on day one of the new market. It also includes online casino, a vertical ATG already runs in Sweden and Denmark, the company announced.

Hippos ATG is the second operator to go public with an award. Malta-based Wildz Group announced its own licence on 15 October. The National Police Board (NPB), which runs the application process, has not yet published a list of successful applicants.

Built around racing

Mikael Bäcke, CEO of Hippos ATG, said:

“We have worked hard to build a completely new company in Finland and its operating models from the very beginning to meet the requirements of the new Finnish legislation.”

Bäcke said the company had been confident throughout that it met the licensing requirements. Preparation covered responsible gambling, anti-money laundering, information security, technical compliance, internal control, risk management and governance.

The venture is owned 50/50 by ATG and Suomen Hippos. Under its profit-sharing model, 60% of profits go back to Finnish horse sport and breeding.

Hippos ATG is based in Helsinki and will trade under the ATG brand. ATG has operated in Sweden since 1974 and in Denmark since 2019, and describes itself as the largest Nordic operator focused on horse and sports betting and online casino.

Regulator keeps quiet

Hippos ATG filed its application after the licensing window opened on 1 March 2026. Chief compliance officer Antti Koivula said at the time that the full regulatory process, including technical integrations, would take around 10 months.

Interest has since outstripped forecasts. The NPB had received 75 applications by 22 September, up from 50 in June, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported.

Each applicant pays a €29,000 processing fee. The NPB has extended its target processing time to six to eight months and warns that some files may take longer.

The NPB remains the licensing authority until the end of June 2027. The Finnish Supervisory Agency then takes over under the gambling reform signed into law in January 2026.

A crowded starting grid

Licensees will compete with a restructured Veikkaus, which keeps exclusive rights over lotteries, pools, physical slot machines and land-based casino games.

Online casino and betting open to all licensees. That puts racing-led brands such as Hippos ATG up against casino specialists like Wildz from launch day.

Enforcement against unlicensed promotion continues in the meantime. The NPB restated this month that prohibition orders and conditional fines remain available.

More announcements are likely as the regulator works through its backlog. Its first official list will show how many pending applications turn into live brands by July.

For Hippos ATG, the focus now shifts to product and operational readiness. The money flowing back to Finnish trotting will hinge on how much share the ATG brand can take in a market Veikkaus has long controlled.