Svenska Spel Adds to Product Lineup
Svenska Spel announced recently that it is adding to both its offline and online services.
Online, the state-run Swedish gaming company will offer more of its products via the Internet. Currently Svenska Spel offers nine games on the Internet. The group said that later this year scratch instant tickets will also be available online for Swedish residents aged 18 and older.
Offline, Svenska Spel is offering a new scratch card called Skrap-Pyramiden. The group reports that the game was introduced in January as an alternative to Skrap-Bingo and is already so popular that three months worth of the tickets sold out in one month. The group is also now offering a group of Saturday and Sunday pools bets that are packaged together and called "Sports bag."
In addition, on March 14, Svenksa Spel's fourth and final land-based casino will open. The casino will be operated by Casino Cosmopol and located in central Stockholm.
African Lotteries Connect in Johannesburg
Representatives from African lotteries will meet in March in Johannesburg for the African Association of State Lotteries. The conference will be hosted by Uthingo, the operator of South Africa's lottery.
The theme of the event is "Working together, winning together," and the conference will allow lottery leaders to share experience, learn about the industry and travel through South Africa.
Topics of the business program include: building a lottery policy framework for Africa, operating a national lottery, legislation, security, marketing, distribution of funds and new games like scratch cards and horse racing.
Svenska Spel Increases Gross Sales
Even while dealing with competition from foreign bookmakers, Svenska Spel is reporting an increase of 14 percent in gross sales for the year. The increase allowed the operation to donate 9 percent more money to Swedish good causes.
Total sales for the group's traditional games, including sports betting and lotteries, amounted to EUR 1.3 billion, an increase of 2.7 percent. Sales for the VLT increase 44 percent to EUR 650 million. Casino Cosmopol, which operates the group's land-based casinos, reported net income of EUR 34 million, a large increase on last year's net income of EUR 3 million.
Svenska Spel is reporting that sales for the sports betting game Oddset increased 7 percent to EUR 185 million. The company said it believes that foreign bookmakers are attracting Swedish bettors via the Internet.
The group also reported that the nine games it offers for play online amounted to 3 percent of the turnover of the traditional games. Svenska Spel said this amount is expected to increase next year when it launches more online games.