Finnish monopoly operator Veikkaus hailed the growth of its online casino business in 2023 despite its land-based ID requirement impacting a 3.6 per cent drop in gross gaming revenue.
In May last year, Veikkaus introduced a requirement for players in land-based settings to show identification.
“The impacts of the identification requirement on Gaming have been as expected,” the company said.
The operator’s GGR reached €1.03bn for 2023, with parent company Veikkaus Oy’s operating profit for the year down 14.7 per cent to €580.2m.
Overall Veikkaus Group profit for the fiscal year was €578.5m, down 13.7 per cent, while operating profit was down 14.5 per cent to €573.6m. It said an increase in the lottery tax, one-time cost entries made as a result of cooperation negotiations in the autumn and “significant investments in the group’s future" impacted the figure.
However, Veikkaus reported that 54.8 per cent of its GGR from customer-oriented activities came from its digital channel – up 4.5 percentage points.
What’s more, Veikkaus’ online casino was the most successful of the operator’ game groups, with revenue up 6.1 per cent to €184m.
“Veikkaus' profits and performance in 2023 were as expected, and we can be satisfied with these as a whole,” said Veikkaus CFO Regina Sippel.
“The year was particularly successful for our online games, and Veikkaus will continue to deepen its development investments in its digital channel.”
Veikkaus’ most-played games were Eurojackpot and Lotto, with Eurojackpot’s revenue flat at €151.1m. Although, Lotto’s GGR amounted to €136.5m, down 8.9 per cent.
Elsewhere in 2023, Veikkaus commented on its Fennica Gaming subsidiary, which focuses on the expansion of the operator’s content to new markets.
Finnica Gaming delivered games to three continents and eight state-owned gaming companies, Veikkaus said, with Finnish online lotteries available in the Nordics, the Baltic states, central Europe and America by the end of the year.
“Fennica Gaming's corporate customers have been very satisfied with the quality of our games as well as Fennica Gaming's service level, expertise and the reliability of our deliveries,” said Fennica Gaming CEO Timo Kiiskinen.
“With these new markets, we have learned a lot about how we can best add value to our corporate customers' business activities. We believe that our rapid expansion will also continue in 2024.”
