Finland’s Gambling Licences: Approval Comes Before the July 2027 Opening

Blixx Gaming says it has received three Finnish gambling licences and plans to open an office in Finland before the market opens on July 1, 2027. Approval and launch are separated by months: the company’s announcement does not establish that its Finnish service is accepting wagers today.

An October 27 report of Blixx’s announcement dates the company’s statement to October 26. It says the Malta-based operator applied when the application window opened on March 1. The office is a stated plan for the period before market entry, rather than an opening we have independently observed.

Read the approval in its jurisdiction

The report describes licences under Finland’s new Gambling Act and identifies online casino games, sports betting and slots among the products being opened to competition. Blixx already holds licences in Estonia, where its brands include Kanuuna and Lonkerokasino. An Estonian permission and a Finnish permission concern different markets; neither establishes availability throughout Europe.

For Finland, the scheduled opening is the next important date. The company’s plans for recruitment and a local presence explain how it intends to prepare, but an office announcement supplies no Finnish revenue, active-player number or market-share result. Those require evidence from operations after launch.

Three licences are not three additional companies

Separately, iGaming Business reported on October 26 that the National Police Board had confirmed 12 approved companies through an information request. It listed 79 licence applications submitted as of that date and no rejections so far.

The company-level list and Blixx’s count of three licences should not be added together as if they used the same unit. Corporate groups can operate through named legal entities, and a licence count can describe permissions rather than a count of brands. The two reports alone do not provide a complete mapping between every brand, applicant and permission.

Nor does “no rejections so far” mean every submitted application has been approved. It is a snapshot of decisions reported by the regulator at that point. Calculating a final approval rate from an unfinished process would conceal the applications still awaiting an outcome.

Keep the next milestone concrete

iGaming Business says Finland’s opening introduces private competition for online gambling, while Veikkaus retains its monopoly in lottery, scratchcards and land-based gaming machines. That is a narrower change than describing the entire gambling sector as opened to any licensed entrant.

Our Maine market-opening report follows a different jurisdiction, but illustrates the same reporting task: identify whether a statement concerns applications, approvals or operating availability. Its timetable cannot be transferred to Finland.

For this Finnish rollout, watch for an identified legal entity, the scope and effective date of its permission, and a confirmed service launch. A local office may support delivery. It does not replace those checks or prove how the new market will perform.