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Under the Finnish Gambling Act, Finland plans to introduce a competitive online market in 2027, replacing the long-standing Veikkaus monopoly. For sports regulators, the change arrives at a moment when suspicious betting activity is already rising.
Integrity Alerts Climb as Reform Approaches
Finland’s alert numbers have grown sharply, adding pressure ahead of the market transition.
The Finnish Centre for Integrity in Sports recorded fewer than twenty alerts in 2022. By 2023, that number had climbed past sixty. It rose again in 2024, reaching seventy-one cases. This steady increase has strengthened the concern that expanding online gambling will add new channels for manipulation at a time when oversight may be stretched.
Major Investigation Exposes Deeper Issues
A four-year inquiry into professional floorball revealed how players and officials became tied to suspicious betting.
SUEK reviewed betting records involving more than one hundred players and club officials from the F-League and Inssi-Divari between 2021 and 2025. These individuals placed over a thousand bets on domestic matches.
Investigators found that ten people were responsible for most of the violations. Some placed bets on their own teams, including wagers on defeats. Veikkaus supported the investigation, adding detail to the findings and showing the scale of the issue behind the scenes.
Wider Risks Across Finland’s Key Sports
Football, ice hockey and horse racing are viewed as particularly exposed to integrity challenges.
Finland’s integrity rules have traditionally focused on anti-doping, leaving fewer tools for addressing betting-related manipulation. The National Sports Council argues that the upcoming market shift heightens the need for new legislation. It recommends adding a clear definition of sports fraud to Finnish law, strengthening long-term funding for monitoring work and formalising the role of FINCS as a national authority.
The council also encourages closer coordination with the Ministry of Education and Culture and suggests creating a national action plan dedicated to safeguarding sports once the monopoly ends.
Lessons from European Market Openings
Other countries faced similar challenges when opening their betting markets.
The report points to Sweden, which replaced its monopoly with a multi-licence system in 2019. To reduce manipulation risks, Swedish authorities introduced restrictions such as banning betting on youth matches. Germany followed a similar path by blocking bets on amateur events. Both examples are held up as practical steps Finland might adopt during the transition.
A Reform Shaped by Opportunity and Risk
The move to a regulated online gambling market will transform Finland’s commercial landscape but also increase pressure on its integrity systems.
While the new market promises greater competition and updated regulation, the report warns that these benefits must be matched with stronger oversight. As Finland prepares for its 2027 launch, the country faces an important question: how will regulators protect the integrity of Finnish sport while opening the door to a more competitive online gambling market?
Source: Finnish National Sports Council
