Ladbrokes Bingo in “Words War” with Svenske Spel

June 5, 2008 · Tagged: Ladbrokes Bingo

British Bingo and gaming giant, Ladbrokes are presently embroiled in a legal action brought against them by Svenske Spel, the State run gambling monopoly. It is not bad enough that Svenske Spel have been in the news them-selves, on an ongoing basis because of their desire to privatize in order to dominate a regulated gambling market that is to be introduced to the country. But they took umbrage to a recent Ladbrokes advert that used the words “Swedish games with English odds.”

Both Svenske Spel and Ladbrokes operate online bingo games and one interesting observation is that the reason for the lawsuit is not so much that Svenske Spel took exception to the words of the ad, more that they are losing their grip on the Swedish gambling monopoly. It also appears that they are indicating to Ladbrokes that this is how they will act in future in a regulated gaming market.

The Swedish online bingo has seen some pretty remarkable increases in numbers in the recent past and currently UK online bingo operators are not allowed to operate within their market, post regulation, they certainly will be though, and we feel that Svenske Spel might be making a show of force towards Ladbrokes.

However, all that being said, Ladbrokes won the first round of the legal suit and this generally bodes well for the future.