SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Nicolai Wammen, Denmark’s Minister of Finance, has stated that his department supports a merger of state-owned gambling operators Danske Spil and Danske Klasselotteri.
Reporting to Folketing (parliament), Wammen expressed that a merger would ‘create a better strategic framework’ for the state-owned assets and how their charitable contributions are distributed, benefiting Danish society.
Furthermore, Wammen detailed that both companies were in need of a digital makeover in order to compete with Denmark’s regulated market incumbents.
The merger of Danske Spil and Danske Klasselotteri has the majority support of Folketing, with the mandate backed by the ruling Social Democrats.
The ownership of Dansk Spil is split three ways, with the government owning a majority stake alongside Denmark’s Olympic Committee (DIC) and National Gymnastic and Sports Association (DIG).
The Ministry of Finance will begin work with Danske Spil and Danske Klasselotteri governance to prepare a ‘concrete proposal’ for how the state-owned business would be merged, including a ‘new business model’.
In 2017, Danish MPs rejected a mandate by Venstre, Denmark’s Conservative Liberal Party to sell all state interests in Danske Spil as a mandatory condition for the government to reform Denmark’s Gambling Act in 2018.
Danske Spil CEO Nikolas Lyhne-Knudsen, stated that he would work with the Ministry of Finance ‘to realise the benefits of a creating a single unified state gambling company’.
