Exclusive: SBTech wins open tender to power Veikkaus sportsbook
Supplier wins four-year contract as Finnish monopoly operator tries to compete with offshore rivals
SBTech has won an open tender to provide the sportsbook platform to Finnish monopoly operator Veikkaus, EGR Intel has learned.
The privately-owned supplier beat out bids from IGT, OpenBet, GiG, Betgenius and FDJ for the contract, thanks to offering the “most economically advantageous” deal, according to tender documents seen by EGR.
The four-year deal is a full platform agreement, covering online and retail channels.
The online part of the contract is worth approximately €2m a year to SBTech EGR understands, with revenues from the retail estate of 3,000+ locations yet to be fully modelled.
The revised product is scheduled to launch in January 2020, starting with a retail integration.
Veikkaus is the Finnish monopoly operator with total gaming revenues of more than €1bn in 2018.
However, the country’s competition regulator is currently reviewing whether it should end the monopoly system thanks to the growth of the offshore market.
Veikkaus generated fixed odds sports turnover of €360m in 2018, but online turnover was down 3.1% as the operator faced increased competition from offshore rivals.
The deal is the second major contract with a lottery operator secured by SBTech in recent weeks, after the firm also won a contract to power the Oregon lottery’s sports betting product, despite a protest from Scientific Games that was turned down.