Online bingo in Sweden and the potential for launching online bingo sites via a white label game solution.

Are you thinking of starting an online bingo site? Could Sweden be a tempting place to launch a new bingo gaming product. Do you have a great brand, whether in Sweden or Europe, and can see bingo fitting in well with your online product.

White label games have become big business. Companies who wish to enter the online gaming markets but are unable to obtain a licence can follow this route. One such company who operate throughout Europe, offer White Label games solutions in various languages. St Minver Ltd allows companies to use their gaming licence to launch a site which benefits from instant liquidity and players. This has opened up the market in Europe and enabled brands to offer online gaming to their customers. This has also led to a recent increase of gaming product sites being launched this year.

But what of the bingo market in Sweden. What is the potential for growth? Well Bingo is big in Sweden. Bingo clubs turn over during the 1990s was around 2.2 billion SEK per year and a total of 1.4 billion SEK in bingo prize money has been won each year. Bingo clubs make lots of money from bingo, receiving some 95 SEK of every 100 SEK. Latest figures in 2005 show bingo club turn over to be around 1.9 billion SEK.

Bingo lotto is big too

There are over 250.000 members in different associations in Sweden that are involved in selling Bingo lotto tickets every week. The total turn over from this distribution channel is over 80%, while the rest of the 20% comes from sales in kiosks and shops etc. The Bingo lotto program is broadcasted on Sundays on TV4 and there are 40 TV-shows during a year. Over 3.900 cars have been won on the TV Bingo lotto. Individual TV- Bingo lotto tickets cost 40SEK.

Folkspel owns Bingo lotto and Folkspel itself is owned by 77 Swedish organisations They have over 5 million members. Bingo lotto turn over was 1.9 billion SEK during 2005 and the Swedish organisations profited some 600 million SEK from this revenue. The platform was launched during 2005 as a joint venture between Folkspel and Bonnier gaming (part of Bonnier Entertainment). The Bonnier group is one of Sweden’s biggest media groups, who control SF Bio, TV4, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, Stockholm City and Dagens Industri, etc.

Players can also check if they have won TV Bingo lotto tickets on their website and there is, from time to time, a celebrity chat moderator on the site.

The Bingo lotto TV4 host has his own corner on the bingo lotto web page and not to forget his own weekly newsletter.

Bingo lotto used to be one of the most popular TV-programmes in Sweden, which attracted lots of viewers. However, during the last few years, the popularity of the show has declined. Though they will be celebrating 15 years this year and the TV show promises lots of updates this autumn when the TV show starts again at the 27th of August. Bingo lotto turn over was 1.26 million SEK in 2005, a decrease with 23% compared with 1.64 during 2004.

Online Bingo potential

The total gaming turn over in Sweden during 2005, which includes foreign owned online gaming companies, was 46 billion SEK, which is an increase of 10% compared with 2004. 7% of the total gaming market turnover in Sweden comes from Bingo. Svenska Spels bingo product SÃƒÂ¶ndagsBingo was shut down during 2005, due to poor performance. However Svenska spel will invest in new bingo halls during 2006. The opportunity for Svenska Spel to arrange online lotteries was made possible by a change in the Swedish lottery legislation that occurred on 1 August 2002. The games have been developed by Boss Media and are online versions of well-known products such as Triss, Tia, Skrap-Bingo and Skrap-Pyramid.

Svenska Spels overall online turn over increased 30% to 1.013 million SEK during 2005, compared with 2004. Svenska spel have 500.000 online customers per week. Turn over from Svenska Spels online bingo increased 84% during 2005 to 96 million SEK (52 million SEK during 2004). The bingo market is estimated to grow by 200% during the next few years (according to one Swedish online bingo provider).

Online Payment Methods

The addition of various companies offering online payment methods in Sweden has also helped open the market and allowed players to deposit to online gaming sites in a safe and secure manner. Players now have confidence in payment companies and e-wallet companies such as Paynova and Payson are reaping the benefits.

Facts about Swedish Bingo players

Bingo turnover in Sweden was 3 billion in 2005 and online bingo turnover was 450 millions SEK. The market is expected to grow by 200% during the next few years. There are currently around 5 bingo sites currently available in Sweden. Caliber Bingo is the most recently launched and already attracts vast numbers of players.

8 out of 10 online bingo players are female. 4 of 10 of these are between 41-50 years old. 3 out of 10 are between 31-40 years old.

50% of these online bingo players play several times a week. 4 out of 10 players play for 100 SEK or more, each time. 41% have as their favourite homepage. 5 % of these have as their favourite homepage.

So the potential for offering further bingo products in Sweden are there for all to see. Europe itself is becoming of hotbed of gaming activity. It seems that UK and America has become saturated with bingo and gaming products. With the recent troubles surrounding a top US betting company and with financiers less willing to invest in America gaming, Europe could become the place to invest and it will not be long before more sites are launched and players are offered a wider choice of games and high quality brands to play with.

By Morgan Collins
Living and working in spain