Following judgement on a case in December, the gambling authority in Sweden, Spelinspektionen, has decided to rethink its licencing requirements for the iGaming industry in the nation.
The gambling body in Sweden revoked its legal position on the importance of negative equity in licence reviews due to its defeat in a case brought forward by Avento. Avento, the owner of Frank Casino and SlotsV originally obtained a three-year licence in December 2019 and was rejected from renewing it in December 2022 due to its negative equity in its first two years of business.
The Swedish court, however, rules that the rejection was to be overruled as Avento is now in a positive financial position and a negative equity didn’t mean a business at risk.
In a statement, Spelinspektionen said: “For applicants who are part of a group, in some cases, the group’s combined capital strength can be taken into account. This applies to both first-time applications and applications for renewed licences. A prerequisite, however, is that the group’s resources are relevant and are actually at the applicant’s disposal, which can be shown, for example, through a capital guarantee.”
It added: “The Swedish Gaming Authority believes that a capital guarantee from a private person cannot be accepted as a starting point in view of the difficulties in obtaining a reliable picture of a natural person’s financial position.
“The extent to which the group’s capital strength can be taken into account and what capital strength is required for the conditions for a licence to be considered fulfilled will be decided in each individual case.”
