Sports Betting Sites Finland
Sports betting is a very popular form of entertainment in Finland. Not only are there plenty of local and officially licensed sports betting sites in the country, but Finish players are also free to access international betting sites without facing any legal consequences. In turn, this creates a very friendly gambling market, and the estimated number of active players in Finland is around 1,5 million, which is more than a quarter of the country’s population.
In this article, we are going to list some of the best sports betting operators that accept players from Finland. The list will consist of both Finish and offshore betting sites, as they are both technically legal. Moreover, we are going to share with you some interesting facts about the Finnish online betting industry, talk about the most popular sports markets, betting types, and more.
Stay tuned!
List of the Best Sports Betting Sites in Finland
We scoured the internet in order to find the absolute best sports betting sites in Finland. After days of research, we came up with a few selections that we feel will satisfy your sports betting needs. All of the listed sites showed us great bonuses, a wide variety of betting markets and options, plenty of Finnish-friendly payment methods, and more. Enjoy!
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Is Online Sports Betting Legal in Finland?
The 2011 Lottery Act is the main legal document when it comes to all gambling activities in Finland. According to that document, online sports betting is legal only if its pursued through betting sites that are officially licensed by the Finnish government. For now, there is only one legal operator in Finland called Veikkaus that holds a monopoly over online betting in the country.
However, when it comes to online gambling, Finland is a bit of a grey market. There are no rules in place that state that international operators must acquire a licence in order to offer their services to Finnish players. So, even though offshore betting sites are technically not legal, they are not illegal either, and a lot of bettors from Finland use this opportunity to bet on those sites.
What’s more, many international betting sites gladly accept players from Finland, and you will rarely run into one that doesn’t. In many ways, offshore sportsbooks have better offers than the local Veikkaus, and that’s why we included many of them on our list.
By betting on these sites, you can take advantage of their massive bonuses and use EUR for deposits and withdrawals. Finnish authorities are not very keen on punishing players who play on international websites, so you don’t have to worry about facing any legal issues.
How We Rate the Best Betting Sites in Finland
Since Finland is open to international betting sites, the pool of operators available to Finnish players is huge. We had the difficult job of separating the wheat from the chaff and coming up with a list that will only include several top-rated betting sites.
After days of research, we finally did it, and we wanted to walk you through our selection process so we can convince you that all of the listed sites are truly the best in their industry.
Licensing and Safety
Even though international betting sites don’t need to be licensed by the Finnish authorities in order to accept Finish players, they still need to own a proper licence to make it onto our list. There are many online gambling authorities in Europe and across the world that issue licences to betting sites, the main ones being the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC), Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Gibraltar, and Curacao.
We check the legitimacy of every site we review by looking into their licensing details. The licences must have a number that leads to a registry and they must be valid, clearly stating their expiry date.
However, the simple fact that a given sports betting site is licensed, doesn’t mean that it’s safe. That’s why we also search for what kind of safety protocols the sites employ. A betting platform that’s considered safe must have encryption technology and firewalls that guarantee the security of players’ personal and financial data.
Sports Betting Bonuses
Bonuses and promotions are very important when choosing an online sportsbook. Bonuses allow you to start betting with a little extra in your account, whether they come in the form of match bonuses, free bets, or cashback.
Every betting site we recommend has rewarding welcome bonuses and recurring promotions. Apart from the value of these promotions, we also looked at their terms and conditions and made sure that the bonuses were easily unlockable and didn’t have any major limitations, like unreasonably high wagering requirements.
Sports Markets
The best sports betting sites in Finland have a wide variety of markets that stretch from popular sports like football, basketball, tennis, horse racing, and golf, to lesser-known sports such as lacrosse, fencing, rowing, and others. Finnish players can also enjoy betting on their most popular sports that include ice hockey and Formula 1. The country’s national sport pesäpallo is not commonly seen on international betting sites, but some do include it on their list of markets.
Modern online sportsbooks also allow you to bet on non-sport markets such as political elections and television. Most bookies also have separate markets for e-sports and virtual sports betting.
Of course, a large number of betting markets is not enough to make a sportsbook site great. It is also important what you can find inside those markets. Our selected sports betting operators allow you to wager on tens of thousands of sporting events a month. These events range from top-tier competitions to some lower-ranked leagues.
Features
When we review sports betting sites, we spend the most time looking at the bookies’ features. As a beginner punter, you might be satisfied with pre-match single bets, and that’s what every bookie will provide you. However, for more advanced betting, you should be able to use options such as in-play betting, bet builder, Acca bets, enhanced odds, and more.
In-play betting is probably the most sought-after betting feature of all, as it allows you to place wagers while the match is going on live. However, the type of bets you’ll be able to make is also very important. We made sure that the betting sites from our list offer plenty of different in-play bets. For example, a typical football match will have in-play betting options such as time of the first goal, next goalscorer, number of yellow and red cards, and more.
Many Finnish sportsbooks also have live streaming available on their most popular events. This means that not only will you be able to bet while the match is taking place, but you can also watch it in HD via any device.
Mobile Compatibility
People of Finland are very tech-savvy, and they are accustomed to using their smartphones and tablets every day. Mobile betting has rapidly increased in the last several years and the number of mobile punters could actually become higher than the number of people who place bets over their computers.
Finnish sportsbooks are well aware of this fact, which is why all of them allow their users to bet via mobile devices. Every sports betting operator from our list has a mobile-friendly website that’s optimised for all popular mobile browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera Mini, Safari, and others. You can access these sites on both your iOS and Android devices.
Moreover, some online sportsbooks have dedicated mobile apps that you can download for free through official app stores. These apps allow you to have a more user-friendly betting experience and use push notifications that let you know about any changes that may occur on your betting slip.
Additionally, some sports betting operators have prepared mobile-exclusive bonuses and promotions as a way to stimulate players to play on mobile.
Payment Methods
We wouldn’t recommend a sports betting site unless it had plenty of different banking options. Finnish players should be able to deposit and withdraw money quickly and without facing any unnecessary service charges. We will expand on popular payment methods in Finland a little later on, but for now, all you need to know is that you can use a wide variety of payment services regardless of which sportsbook you choose from our list.
Moreover, most of these sportsbooks accept payments in EUR, so you won’t need to go through any currency exchanges.
Customer Support
Last but not least, we checked every website’s customer support and rated their responsiveness as well as the accuracy of their answers. As a beginner player, it’s expected that you have a lot of questions, so friendly and professional customer support should always be at your disposal.
Most of our recommended sportsbooks have three modes of contact — email, live chat, and telephone. Unfortunately, rarely do any of them have customer support agents that speak Finnish, but they are all very fluent in English. Some sites can, however, be translated to Finnish, if that’s any consolation.
How to Bet Online in Finland — Creating an Account on a Finnish Betting Site
Creating an online betting account in Finland is relatively easy. We understand that a lot of our readers are only starting to explore the world of online betting, so we decided to make a simple step-by-step guide on how to create an account and start playing.
Here’s what you need to do.
Step 1: Choose a Site That Best Suits Your Needs
Just because we gave you a list of the best betting sites in Finland, doesn’t mean that you should just pick one randomly. Instead, you should carefully go through every one of those platforms and see what they are about. Each site has different bonuses, markets, features, and payment methods, so make sure to choose one that satisfies your needs for online betting.
Step 2: Create an Account
Once you’ve made your choice, you’ll need to create a real-money account on that website. After you land on the homepage, find a Register, Join, or Sign Up button that will usually be placed in the upper right corner of the screen.
First, you will get to set up your account by typing in your username and password of choice. After that, you will go through a registration form that requires you to fill out some of your personal information like your name, address, zip code, preferred currency, and other details.
After you complete the form, the operator will send you an email or an SMS with an activation link or code. Follow the protocol and your account will be activated.
Make sure that you read the site’s terms and conditions before registration. Also, note that you must be at least 18 years old in order to create an account on a betting site in Finland.
Step 3: Deposit
Now that your account is all set up, all you need to do in order to start betting is deposit money. To deposit, navigate to the website’s cashier page and select one of the deposit methods on offer. Simply input the amount of money that you wish to deposit and wait for the transaction to go through.
All methods, except bank wires and cheques, allow for almost instantaneous deposits. We also selected sportsbooks that don’t impose any fees on your deposits.
Make sure to follow the rules regarding minimum deposit limits (usually around €10), especially if you want to claim the betting site’s welcome offer. Once the deposit is confirmed by the operator, you can start betting.
Step 4: Cashing Out
You might not get lucky right away, but if you’re persistent enough, you’ll eventually end up with a winning betting slip. If you want to keep the money on your account for future bets, you can do that, of course. But if you want to cash out your winnings, here’s the procedure.
First, you should go back to the cashier page, only this time, you will need to navigate to the withdrawal section. Choose one of the available withdrawal methods (note that some sportsbooks might force you to withdraw with the same method you used for depositing). Type in the amount you want to cash out and make sure that you’re familiar with the minimum and maximum withdrawal limits. Minimum cash out limits are usually around €10 or €20
The operator will then process your withdrawal request which usually doesn’t last more than 24 hours. You can reverse your withdrawal request during this period. Depending on the method you have chosen, the money will reach your banking account in either a few hours or a few business days.
Popular Sports Betting Payment Methods in Finland
Although many countries face various restrictions when it comes to online betting banking options, Finland is luckily not one of them. Finnish players have dozens of payment methods at their disposal ranging from credit and debit cards all the way to cryptocurrencies.
Credit card services such as Visa and Mastercard are still among the most popular forms of online gambling payments. Some bookies also accept Discover and American Express cards.
E-wallets are the second most popular option. Companies like Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, and EcoPayz are commonly seen on Finnish betting sites. There are also various online banking services like Euteller that are very popular in the northern parts of Europe. Plenty of players from Finland use Zimpler, which is a Swedish company known for providing seamless mobile payment options.
Of course, there are always good old wire transfers and cheques. The deposit and withdrawal limits for these methods tend to be higher and transactions are very secure, but payment processing is tedious.
If you want to complete safe, fast, and anonymous betting transactions, our suggestion is to use cryptocurrency payments like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple. While these options are great, there still aren’t a lot of sports betting sites that accept them.
Other payment methods you might run across include Trustly, EntroPay, Citadel, WebMoney, Ukash, and a myriad of pay-by-phone services.
Sports Betting Bonuses for Finnish Players
It can sometimes happen that certain sports betting bonuses are not available to players from Finland. However, this is quite rare, and we’ve made sure to keep websites that restrict Finnish players in any way out of our list.
In any case, there are several types of sports betting bonuses that Finnish players can use. Here are some of the most common ones.
Match Bonuses
Match bonuses are usually part of a sportsbook’s welcome offer. They match your first deposit made on the website. For example, if a given site says that it has a 100% welcome bonus up to €200, that means that your deposit of €200 will be rewarded with another €200 in free bonus money. Of course, you can choose to deposit less than €200, but the bonus amount will also be lower.
Match bonuses come with certain terms and conditions, or rules that you must abide by in order to use the bonus properly. These rules concern minimum deposit limits, bonus codes, minimum odds, wagering requirements, maximum cashout limits, bonus expiration dates, and more.
Free Bets
Free bets are the most common type of bonus on Finnish sportsbook sites. Once you deposit money into your account, the bookie will give you some extra money to play with. The main difference between free bets and match bonuses is that the value of free bets is usually always the same regardless of the value of your deposit.
Free bets are usually around €10 or so, and can sometimes come in increments. Just like any other sportsbook bonus, free bets are tied to various terms and conditions.
Money-Back and Cashback Bonuses
A lot of betting sites that accept players from Finland offer money-back and cashback promotions. These two bonus types are somewhat similar, but they’re not exactly the same.
Namely, a money-back promotion gives you the chance to bet for free. If you win, it’s business as usual, but if you lose, the bookie will return the stake. However, you can’t withdraw the money that was given back to you just yet, as you will be forced to bet with it according to the bonus’ terms and conditions.
Cashback bonuses, on the other hand, represent a percentage of your net losses that the bookie will give you after a certain period. For example, if the cashback offer is 10% per week, and you happen to lose €200 over the course of a week, the bookie will give you €20 back, usually with no strings attached.
Conclusion
We hope that you liked our article about the best betting sites in Finland. Finnish players are blessed in a lot of ways since they can safely and legally play on both local and international betting sites. We browsed through all of them and made a list of the best ones. Good luck!
FAQ
Is online sports betting legal in Finland?
Yes, you can legally bet on sports in Finland through official sportsbook sites. Since the offshore betting industry is not regulated in the country, international sites are available to Finnish players as well.
Can players from Finland use sportsbook bonuses?
Most online sportsbooks don’t restrict Finnish players from using bonuses and promotions. The most common types of bonuses on these sites include match bonuses, free bets, money-back, and cashback.
What are the most popular sports markets in Finland?
The most popular Finnish markets are ice hockey, football, basketball, Formula 1, and some other sports.
Can I bet on mobile on online sportsbooks in Finland?
Yes, all of the websites from our list are mobile-friendly. They have optimised mobile websites, and some of them even have downloadable apps.
What is the legal sports betting age in Finland?
To bet on sports in Finland, you must be at least 18 years old.
