Finnish state gambling operator Veikkaus is celebrating 10 years of betting via the Internet.
I-gaming has developed over the past decade from a marginal phenomenon to a success story. Veikkaus's Web site currently welcomes around 100,000 daily visitors. This autumn, Veikkaus attained the weekly Internet sales record of 4.8 million euro--nearly 17 percent of the group's total weekly sales.
For the period of January through September 2006, total sales for the company amounted to 997 million euro, and 147 million euro of that came from Internet sales.
Founded in 1940, Veikkaus launched its first Web site in 1995 and rolled out a pilot program for games on the Net in December 1996. During its first week in existence, the Internet gaming service attracted 393 players, posting sales of 55,000 Finnish marks (around 9,250 euro).
The option of playing games on the Net was officially introduced to Veikkaus customers on March 10, 1997. In the beginning, the monopolist only offered betting games. The selection was increased gradually, and lotto was launched in June 1997. By March 1999, the entire game selection was available on the Net.
Veikkaus.fi has taken huge steps forward over the years. The latest major upgrade came in summer 1995, when the group launched the first e-instants. Around the same time, they began offering lotto, keno, and fixed-odds betting via SMS.
In December 2005, the Finnish operator introduced a game folder that customers must open if they wish to play one of the games. At the same time, the contents of the Web site were made more versatile with the opening of the "Dreams Site." The changes were received well; the number of Veikkaus' active players increased rapidly from 110,000 to 125,000.
Veikkaus attained record turnover of 1.3 billion euro in 2005. This resulted in revenues of 400.9 million euro, of which the company returned 381.4 million euro to the Ministry of Education in accordance with the state budget. Veikkaus paid out a total of 678.7 million euro in prizes in 2005. Its advertisement expenses, meanwhile, amounted to 10 million euro (0.8 percent of turnover). Commissions paid out to the retailers totaled 80.6 million euro (6.1 percent of the turnover).
Veikkaus is member of the European Lotteries.