A new report from the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) demonstrates the overwhelming preference for multi-licensing of online gambling. Of 31 European countries, 27 have some form of multi-licensing, and most take a full multi-licensing approach.
Multi-licensing allows multiple gaming companies to offer iGaming within a country provided they are compliant with regulations.
The industry today is significantly different than in 2009, when “most European countries lacked dedicated regulations for online gambling or operated under exclusive rights models where only state-owned entities had a monopoly to offer online gambling services,” the report stated.
Per the EGBA report, only four countries—Finland, Iceland, Norway and Luxembourg—have no multi-licensing. The first three give state-owned operators exclusive rights to iGaming, while Luxembourg “lacks dedicated regulations for online gambling.”
Of the 27 countries with multi-licensing, 23 have a full multi-licensing model for all regulated online gambling. Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria and Poland have partial multi-licensing. Cyprus and France have product-specific exclusions but employ multi-licensing for other regulated iGaming. Finland is expected to establish a multi-licensing framework for online gambling in 2026.
Commenting on the report, EGBA Secretary General Maarten Haijer said, “The momentum towards full multi-licensing for online gambling in Europe is undeniable. While a few exceptions still exist, governments are concluding that public policy objectives, particularly related to consumer protection and tax generation, are more effectively met through well-regulated online competition. Finland’s current transition towards multi-licensing signals the impending end of the last online gambling monopoly in the EU, marking a significant regulatory milestone.”
“Similar deliberations regarding the future of the online monopoly are inevitable in Norway and Iceland,” he continued. “Furthermore, the handful of countries with either partial monopolies or product prohibitions should strive for greater consistency and effectiveness in their policies by phasing these out.”
He said multi-licensing “offers the best pathway to enhance consumer protection, increase tax revenues and ensure stronger regulatory control. The time has come for the last remaining European countries to embrace this optimal form of online regulation.”
