Playtech Gets Licensing Extension in Finland

The legal scene for online gambling is pretty crazy right now on a global scale. For a long time, there were few, if any, laws in most countries that had to do with placing bets on the Internet. Over time, however, many countries started to regulate the industry and control who could offer their services to citizens of the countries in question. This created a whole new set of markets for online casino companies to compete for, but the motivation was for the countries to get tax money from the business side of the operations.

Playtech recently renewed their licensing agreement with the country of Finland. Raha-Automaattiyhdistys, known as RAY for short, is the gaming operator for Finland that is ran by the government. RAY manages all of the online gambling for Finland, and they have been established since 1938. Playtech's extension means that their games and services will continue to be offered in the country for the next two years. This comes after their four-year deal that was made in 2010 gets close to coming to an end. They primarily offer RAY online casino and online poker services, and these services will continue to at least 2016 under this licensing extension. This is great news for citizens of Finland who love playing at Playtech-powered online gambling properties.

Playtech COO Shay Segev released a statement about the deal renewal that said, "We are very pleased that the partnership between the two companies has remained strong and that, moving forward, we will continue to see the relationship grow. With the recent launch of Playtech's mobile casino, RAY will have yet another platform to drive revenues and engage players in the Finnish market for years to come. RAY is a strategic Playtech partner, demonstrating our strong position in regulated markets."

As one of the two most successful online casino software developers in the world, Playtech holds a position in the online gambling industry that is rivaled by very few. With such a strong hold on newly-regulated markets, it's going to be hard for most software companies other than Microgaming to compete with Playtech over the next few years. Unless something crazy happens, Playtech's position in the industry looks like it's rock solid. With this deal with RAY, Playtech shows that they are continuing to dig in to maintain their position as one of the leading companies in the online gambling world.