Sweden has made news on this side of the ocean a few times this year – even earning a mention in Donald Trump’s tweets. We’ll start off our look at this week’s casino news with the Nordic country as their online gaming numbers appear to be on the rise.
Online Gaming On The Rise In Sweden
Based on reports this week, it looks like the online gaming market in Sweden continues to grow. According to Mediavision, between 200,000 and 230,000 people play at online casinos every month. So far, the big winners are Betsson and Unibet, which have about 50,000 players each under their umbrellas every month. Why this is relevant is because Sweden doesn’t allow local betting firms, so players are using foreign providers. Companies like Bet365, Cunibet and Betsson have taken advantage.
As the numbers grow and the country shows a demand for online gaming, it could force a change in the current rules. Swedish companies such as ATG and Svenska Spel are pushing for legalization so that they can begin to offer games in online casinos. Even the government is looking at ways to get involved, suggesting that a licensing system should be instituted. We’ll see if Mediavision’s report encourages any modifications.
Players Win Big At Casumo Casino
If you’re looking to win big, you might want to try Casumo Casino. They paid out very well recently over a five-day stretch, with two jackpot wins that combined for around $8.56 million. The first came on March 30, when a 28-year-old Swedish man won over $3.57 million playing Mega Fortune Slot Jackpot. More impressive was the fact that he won it on a bet of $2.75. He had actually started to play when he was done his night shift at work but he may not need to work for a while.
The next big win came five days later on April 4, when a 30-year-old man won about $4.985 million playing Mega Fortune Dreams, which is similar to Mega Fortune Slot Jackpot. The man was new to Casumo Casino as he had just opened his account two hours prior to winning.
This isn’t new for Casumo Casino, as two players won huge jackpots in 2016. One took home over $3.3 million, another won over $3.45 million. Four years ago, someone won over $3.7 million.
IGT Sells DoubleDown
International Game Technology has decided to sell DoubleDown roughly five years after they purchased the social-casino app. IGT bought DoubleDown for $500 million in early 2012 and has flipped it to DoubleU Games out of South Korea for $825 million.
DoubleDown had been in a decline in 2016 as they reported $280 million of revenue. While that number seems healthy, it is actually down 11.7% from 2015. There was also a drop of 14.3% in terms of daily active users, which is an ominous sign.
Even after selling the company off to DoubleU, they plan on working with them in terms of game development and distribution, among other services. IGT has been busy over the last year or two; notably, they merged with GTECH, a lottery company based in Italy, in a deal worth about $6.4 billion.