Gambling companies have a bad reputation in Sweden - with the exception of Svenska Spel. At the end of the year, Sweden opened a new law for foreign gambling companies. Thus, Svenska Spel faced stiffer competition than before. YouGov has studied Swedes' attitudes towards various gaming companies in the Swedish market.

The general conclusion is that game companies are not yet positioning themselves clearly in the market. Swedes mostly associate game companies with "unreliable" (13-16%). The only exception is Svenska Spel (8%), which is also the only gaming company on the Swedish market that most Swedes have a positive impression of. Svenska Spel is more associated with words such as "Reliable" (26%) and "Good customer service" (14%) than other gaming companies.

In turn, Svenska Spel gets competition when it comes to the word "Good Bonuses," which more people associate with Maria Casino (6%) and Unibet (5%) than with Svenska Spel (4%).

Svenska Spel is the best-known gaming company. 84% of Swedes know about Svenska Spel. By comparison: 61% of Swedes know Betsson and 58% know Unibet.

Perception of gaming companies

Gaming companies that Swedes have the best impression of

Not all Swedes are equally critical of gaming companies. The more persistent punters who bet on sports (betting / odds / tips) at least once a month give a generally much more positive impression. We have looked closely at this target group using the segmentation tool.

Because of the limited opportunities in Swedish bookmakers, players prefer bettingbolag utan svensk licens. These are international bookmakers licensed by a country in the European Union, Britain or Malta. 

Money plays (bets) every monthThe group consists mainly of men (78%), who play sports every month and are significantly more interested in sports than the average (57% vs. 23% of the population). The target group is also more interested in economics and finance (24% vs. 15% of the population), as well as personal finance (40% vs. 30% of the population), and they are happy to take risks with their money. Most people in this target group play sports on a weekly basis (46%).

Svenska Spel is also a favourite in this target group, but compared to the general population, this group has a much more positive impression of, for example, Bet365 (31% vs. 7% in the population), Betsson (28% vs. 9% in the population) and Unibet (28% vs. 9% in the population).

Additional facts:

• More than one in four Swedes (28%) gamble every month, and almost as many (26%) buy scratch cards.
• Every tenth Swede plays sports betting (betting / odds / tips) every month.

About the survey

The survey was conducted by YouGov, an opinion and market research company. Between 8 March and 11 March 2019, a total of 2012 interviews via the Sweden online panel were conducted with men and women aged 18 and over. The sample is representative of gender, age and region.