Veikkaus Reshapes Organization as Finland Prepares Licensed Gambling Market

Veikkaus, Finland’s state-owned gambling operator, has opened change negotiations that would end 15 existing positions and create 17 new ones across its Data & AI unit, two business units, and finance teams. The company issued its negotiation proposal on 2. september 2026, and published its interim report for January–juni 2026 the following day, reporting group sales revenue of €471.3 million.

The negotiations concern the Veikkaus parent organization. In its announcement of the proposal, the company said that beyond the 15 roles planned to potentially end and the 17 new positions planned, substantial changes may be made to four further positions. The negotiations are estimated to last approximately three weeks.

Reija Airas, Veikkaus’ EVP for People, Culture & Communications, said the new market situation requires the company to renew its capabilities and ways of working, with the focus and content of work changing. She said the company wants to be ready to meet future requirements with its existing expertise.

Financial Results for the First Half

Veikkaus Group‘s actual sales revenue for January–juni 2026 totalled €471.3 million, compared with €466.4 million in the same period of 2025. Operating profit was €227.7 million, up from €220.6 million, and profit for the financial period was €234.2 million, against €229.6 million a year earlier. The group consists of parent company Veikkaus Ltd and international subsidiary Fennica Gaming.

CEO Olli Sarekoski said the first half developed positively and in line with the company’s expectations, describing the group as having returned to a growth path. He said the company’s investments in digital business and technical capabilities are delivering results in the current operating environment, and that the growth of its online store in the Finnish businesses exceeded the general market development in Finland.

Parent company Veikkaus Ltd recorded gross gaming revenue of €469.5 million, compared with €463.9 million a year earlier. The parent company’s operating profit was €227.3 million, down from €242.7 million; according to the interim report, the comparison period included €20.7 million of non-recurring income from the Game Studio’s internal business. The company paid €56.1 million in lottery tax to the Finnish state, €0.9 million more than in the corresponding period of 2025.

Digital Channels and Business Divisions

Digital channels generated 64.5% of Veikkaus Ltd’s gross gaming revenue in the first half, with the remaining 35.5% coming from physical points of sale. The digital share increased by 3.6 percentage points from a year earlier. Digital gross gaming revenue rose 9.1% in the Lottery and Land Based Gaming business and 5.0% in the Betting and iCasino business. Registered customers numbered 2,672,000 at the end of June, an increase of approximately 50,000 from the same point in 2025.

Gross gaming revenue in the Lottery and Land Based Gaming division was €317.9 million, compared with €317.5 million a year earlier. Within the division, lottery games generated €254.5 million, up from €246.1 million, with the company attributing the growth to the digital channel and the Veikkaus app, the Milli game launched in juni 2025, and higher Lotto jackpot levels than in the comparison period. Slot machines and physical table games generated €63.4 million, down from €71.3 million, a decline the report attributes to the contraction of the retail network and a reduced number of slot machines.

The Betting and iCasino division generated gross gaming revenue of €151.6 million, up from €146.5 million, with customer numbers reaching a record high during the period, according to the report. The company said it expanded the iCasino game selection with new games and suppliers and doubled the release capacity of its in-house game studio, while live casino continued to grow. Fixed-odds betting developed strongly, the report said, supported by the new betting offering and by major sporting events in the first half, including the Olympic Games, the Ice Hockey World Championship and the start of the FIFA World Cup.

Fennica Gaming, the subsidiary responsible for international B2B operations and game production for Veikkaus’ Finnish businesses, increased its revenue by 80.6% to €10.3 million from €5.7 million. During the half, Fennica expanded into Italy, Canada, two German states, Mexico, the Czech Republic and Iceland. The subsidiary now operates in 21 markets across three continents and three gaming verticals, with its iCasino games available in seven markets. The report noted that the comparison period did not include revenue from Veikkaus’ Finnish businesses prior to the Game Studio’s transfer to Fennica at the beginning of april 2025.

Licence Applications and the 2027 Market Opening

Finland’s new Gambling Act was ratified in januar 2026, moving the country toward a partial multi-licence system. Provisions on licence applications entered into force on 1. mars 2026, and licensed gambling operations under the new system begin on 1. juli 2027. Veikkaus’ exclusive right to operate betting games and iCasino games ends with the transition; it will retain exclusive rights to lottery games, scratch cards, slot machines and physical table games.

In mai 2026, Veikkaus established two separate subsidiaries for the future market — one focused on exclusive operations and the other on the competitive licence-based market — and submitted licence applications for both. By the end of June, around 50 other companies had applied for licences, a figure Sarekoski described in the report as in line with the company’s expectations.

Veikkaus will pay market-based compensation for its exclusive operations, totalling approximately €1 billion for the ten-year licence period. According to the interim report, a significant part of that compensation will fall due on a front-loaded basis during 2026, based on current information.

On 2. september 2026, Veikkaus also joined The Gambling Industry Association Finland (Rahapeliala ry), a trade association founded in 2022 that promotes the creation of a responsible and sustainable gambling market in Finland. Sarekoski said the association had done valuable work in preparation for the system reform and that cooperation is crucial for ensuring the functionality of the future system. Mika Kuismanen, the association’s CEO, said Veikkaus’ membership strengthens the representativeness and expertise of the industry’s advocacy.

The change negotiations covering the Data & AI unit, the two business units, and the finance teams are expected to conclude in approximately three weeks from the 2. september 2026 proposal date.