NordicBet ink Evolution Gaming, Betsson close iconic Götgatan betting shop

betsson-gotgatan-betting-shopNordicBet, a subsidiary of Swedish online gambling operator Betsson AB, has tapped live dealer casino specialists Evolution Gaming to power a new live casino offering. The deal will see Evolution provide its generic live roulette, blackjack and baccarat table games to NordicBet.com as well as its TrioBet and Maxino brands. Evolution will also provide the sites with its turnkey native language tables, including Svensk Roulette, Deutsches Roulette and Ruletka Live, in addition to Evolution’s Norske Roulette service. NordicBet casino manager Simon Högberg said Evolution’s offering was selected for its “sheer quality, volume and variety.”

Meanwhile, Betsson’s iconic Götgatan betting shop in Stockholm officially closed its doors for good on Thursday after a long and epic struggle with Swedish authorities over its right to exist. The shop opened in May 2008 and immediately came under fire from Swedish authorities for having the audacity to compete with state monopoly operator Svenska Spel. The shop offered customers access to computers dialed in to Betsson’s online gambling servers in Malta, in a bid to “offer consumers freedom,” according to then-CEO Pontus Lindwall.

Current Betsson CEO Magnus Silfverberg said the Götgatan shop had been “important to the development for both Betsson and to the rest of the Swedish gambling market.” But Silfverberg says the company believes “the shop has now fulfilled its cause” of starting the debate about Swedish gambling law, as evidenced by the European Commission’s recent warning to Sweden over its anti-competitive monopoly stance. Silfverberg says Betsson’s customers “now have their betting shop at home,” a change that will allow Betsson to “put full focus on our mobile products, which have made astonishing progress this year … Our future is mobile, like our players.”