Wildz claims Finland’s first online gambling licence

• Wildz Group is the first operator to publicly disclose a licence approval in Finland.
• The five-year licence takes effect when the market opens on 1 July 2027.
• The National Police Board has not publicly confirmed Wildz’s claimed approval.

Wildz Group says it has become the first operator to receive a licence for Finland’s regulated online gambling market, though the National Police Board has not publicly confirmed the decision.

The Malta-based group says it was notified on 15 October of a five-year licence, effective when the market opens on 1 July 2027.

Letter before list

For now, the only word comes from Wildz. The National Police Board, which handles licensing until the market opens, has not confirmed the approval. Nor has it said whether a list of successful applicants will follow.

Board member Lasse Rantala shared the news in a Finnish-language LinkedIn post. He wrote that the group had completed the licensing process and that work towards the July 2027 launch was continuing.

The group runs the Wildz, Caxino, Wheelz, Spinz, Chipz, Tuplaus and Blingi casino brands, plus the Wildz Sports sportsbook. It was founded by Finnish gaming executives and traded as Rootz until 2025.

Day-one applicant

Wildz says it filed on 1 March, the first day applications were accepted. At the time, it cited its Malta Gaming Authority, German and Ontario licences as grounds for confidence.

Sam Brown, CEO, Wildz Group, said:

“Receiving the amazing news of being the first operator to receive a licence in Finland is a welcome reward for all the efforts of the team in the application process. We’re excited about this milestone and what it represents for the future of Wildz Group.”

Brown added:

“We believe that our brands will offer players in Finland a safe and engaging entertainment product for many years to come. We’re looking forward to July 2027.”

From warning to welcome

In late October 2025, Iltalehti reported that the National Police Board had threatened Rootz with a marketing ban over Wildz promotions aimed at Finnish players.

The board had sent a formal request for information in July 2025. Documents seen by the newspaper cited Instagram posts by a former alpine skiing champion and Wildz content on Finnish-language sports sites, plus an offer to refund voided bets on a Finland v Poland World Cup qualifier.

Under current law, only Veikkaus may market gambling in mainland Finland. The National Police Board confirmed at the time that it was considering a marketing prohibition, backed by a conditional fine, if the targeting did not stop.

Rootz rejected the regulator’s findings, Iltalehti reported. It nonetheless said it would ask affiliates to remove Wildz content and strip bank logos and Finnish-language wording from its sites. A year on, the group says the same authority has granted it a licence.

Queue at the gate

Others are close behind. The National Police Board had received 75 licence applications by 22 September, up from the 50 applications counted in June, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported. The board had not decided on any of them at that point.

A single company can file for more than one licence type, so 75 applications does not mean 75 operators. Veikkaus and Hippos ATG, the trotting joint venture, have both said they applied.

There is no cap on licence numbers, and each application carries a €29,000 processing fee. The board told Yle it had extended its target processing time from around six months to six to eight months.

A billion-dollar pot

Janne Nikkinen, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, told Yle that earlier estimates of 40 to 60 applications had seemed optimistic. He compared the total with Sweden, which has around 89 licences and roughly twice the population.

Nikkinen told Yle:

“Finland is attracting interest. After all, this is a billion-dollar pot that is being distributed here now.”

Veikkaus posted €936.3m in sales revenue in 2025 and ended the year with close to 2.7 million registered customers. It keeps an exclusive licence for lotteries and land-based gaming, and new CFO Ilkka Kosola joined as it prepares for online competition.

No affiliates allowed

The reform President Alexander Stubb signed into law in January opens betting, online casino, slots and bingo to licensed rivals. A 2023 Interior Ministry study estimated that €500m to €550m a year was spent with gambling sites outside the monopoly.

The new act allows marketing only through an exhaustive list of channels, which leaves affiliate and influencer marketing off limits. Draft regulations also propose capping online slot stakes at €20.

For Wildz, the affiliate ban shuts the channel at the heart of last year’s dispute.

Two clocks running

B2C operators that have not yet filed are short on time to be live on opening day, given the processing estimate and the absence of a deadline. Supervision passes to the new Finnish Supervisory Agency on the same date.

Suppliers face a later clock. They can apply for gambling software licences from 1 July 2027, and licensed operators may only use licensed software providers from 1 July 2028.

Nordic lawyers argue that enforcement alone will not pull players onshore. Finland’s reform is on the agenda at SNGS in Copenhagen on 22 and 23 October.