It is no secret that the Finnish love to gamble – it is not one of those facts that will surprise us. It has been estimated that almost 80% of the adult population in Finland gamble, spending more than 2 billion dollars every year. To give you an idea of just how much that is, Finland has a total population of just over 5.5 million. Thanks to their love of gambling, the gambling industry in the country is thriving, and it is only going to get bigger and bigger.
Sports Betting in Finland
The most popular thing that the Finns love to bet on is the Veikkaus Lotto, which is also known as the national lottery. It is estimated that more than 70% of Finland’s population try their luck at the lottery on a regular basis. This lottery is popular because any profits that Veikkaus makes from it is used to benefit society and not just the government.
When the Finns are not playing the lottery, they love to bet on sporting events. Since Finland is a Scandinavian country, they prefer placing bets on winter sports such as cross-country skiing, hockey, and pesapallo, which is their national sport and is similar to baseball.
Football is another sport that they love to bet on, although they pay much more attention on foreign leagues such as the English Premier League and the Bundesliga. They also love to bet with gusto on big international competitions such as the European Championship and the World Cup. Many more bets would have been placed on the Euro 2020 than usual since Finland qualified for their first-ever major international tournament. In fact, Veikkaus.fi lost 1.7 million Euros from the Finland v Denmark game as many patriotic Finns used their favorite sports betting sites, found at suomiveikkaus.com, to back their team to win, which they did 1-0.
Lots of Sponsors
When you realize just how much the Finns love betting on sports and understand the euphoria that would have come from qualifying for their first major international competition, it will come as no surprise to find out that their football team had plenty of sponsors for the Euro 2020. Below we have listed the main sponsors for you, just so you can get an idea as to just how many they had, despite the fact that it was more than likely that they would only be playing three matches:
- Aon
- Eezy
- Elämysmatkat
- Elisa
- Europcar
- HP
- Ilta-Sanomat
- LähiTapiola
- Lidl
- Lippupiste
- Motonet
- Nike
- OutsourceIT
- Polar Electro
- PunaMusta
- Rantalainen
- Scandic
- Sinebrychoff
- STADIUM
- Subway
- Teboil
- Turo Tailor
- Veikaus
- Vetonaula
- Viking Line
- Volkswagen
- VR
Betting Brands Sponsoring Football Teams
So, as you can see, there were close to 30 sponsors that had some sort of sponsorship deal with the Football Association of Finland, but there is one that we want to focus on and that is Veikkaus. This company is a Finnish gambling agency that has a monopoly on the gambling scene in Finland. So, why do we want to focus on them and none of the other sponsors? Well, it is because there is always a lot of debate nowadays as to whether gambling companies should be allowed to advertise at sporting events.
There have been plenty of campaigns to block betting sites from being able to sponsor sports teams, so we thought that we would take a look at the pros and cons of banning gambling advertising at sporting events.
Pros:
Reduced gambling consumption: There are plenty of countries that have introduced restrictions when it comes to gambling advertising. Since adverts help to increase the consumption and demand of gambling, such laws that ban it will impact the public. In fact, betting sponsorships in football and rugby continue to increase as they are a quick and easy way for gambling companies to hit their target audience. In partnerships between football clubs and gambling companies, their names are advertised on the kits that the players wear, which seduces the fans of the club. By banning gambling adverts, the government can decrease problem gambling.
Minors will be protected: There have been campaigns to block gambling adverts to protect children from being overly exposed to gambling. A lot of kids watch football games, so if they see a lot of gambling adverts, they will be compelled to give it a go themselves. Children are more likely to develop a gambling addiction than adults, and many countries around the world are seeing a rise in problem gambling issues in children. By banning gambling adverts in sports, the most vulnerable members of society will be protected.
Cons:
Sports teams will suffer financially: In popular sports such as football, sponsorships from gambling clubs are very important as the club earns a lot of money from promoting gambling companies. Football clubs around the world are already suffering financially because of the pandemic, so if gambling sponsorship and advertising were outlawed, they would suffer even more. While the big teams will be able to cope, there are many smaller teams that rely on the income from being sponsored by gambling companies. It could end up that a number of small teams go into administration if gambling advertising was to be completely outlawed.
Loss of jobs: Gambling is something that brings in a lot of revenue for a government and is also something that provides jobs for hundreds of thousands of people around the world. If such a ban were to come into place, the future of gambling companies will be a mystery. However, there is one thing that we can be sure of, and that is that thousands of sportsbooks will shut down and many will lose their jobs, leading to economic turmoil.
So, where do we stand with this? Well, we can understand the reasons why people want gambling companies to no longer be able to advertise at sporting events, but we can also see the reason why some think they should be allowed to continue to do so. We feel that some sort of compromise needs to be made so that both camps are somewhat happy.