Wildz Group plans 11 Finland brands after securing licence

Brands planned for Finland

11

Companies that have applied for licences

80

Wildz Group has been granted a licence to operate in Finland's online gambling market, which opens to private operators on 1 July 2027, the company's chief executive Sam Brown told iGaming Business. Wildz was the first operator to publicly announce licence approval, according to the report, and Hippos ATG has also announced approval. Around 80 companies have applied for licences so far, with more decisions expected as the application window approaches eight months since it opened.

“We don’t want to go in kind of guns blazing, spraying money around; we’ve seen how that goes historically when markets open”

Brown said the Malta-based group intends to launch all 11 of its brands in Finland and will likely apply for several more licences, splitting the brands across them. He said the split is not fully confirmed but is highly likely, and that it would help manage risk and open the possibility of M&A later. Wildz operates a handful of brands, most of them casino-focused, and currently runs its flagship Wildz Casino brand in Germany's regulated market.

Brown said the group plans to launch a couple of sportsbook products in Finland but that the focus will be on casino, describing the market as casino-focused and slots-focused. He said Wildz is building its technology stack in-house for Finland, including 11 .fi products, and that the work is on track. He said the aim is to build a compliant product from the bottom up rather than offer a reduced version of its international product, and that the group has studied what the National Police Board expects.

Brown said Wildz does not want to spend heavily on entry, citing the effect on regulation when markets open. He said the sustainable approach is to enter in a measured way, find a position in the market and offer players the best experience. The report noted that Wildz will compete with operators that have been active in Finland's grey market, that Hippos ATG expects casino to be the most competitive vertical, and that current monopoly operator Veikkaus, which has also applied for a licence, will have an advantage from its existing customer base and brand recognition.

The regulatory overhaul in Finland ends the monopoly system and lets private companies enter online gaming starting 1 July 2027. Brown called the licence a “big win” and placed it within a longer-term plan to concentrate on markets that are 100% locally regulated or heading that way. He told iGB the Finnish market would be central to the group's push to expand its regulated footprint.