Denmark’s new supplier licensing regime offers one of the clearest examples of where mature regulated markets are heading: away from operator-only supervision and towards direct accountability for the technology companies behind betting and casino products.
Denmark is not a gold-rush market, it is mature, orderly and closely watched. But it has become a useful test case: a jurisdiction where the legal market is strong enough to impose tougher demands without pushing players wholesale towards unlicensed sites.
For suppliers, the Danish model is less about chasing a fast-growth market than proving they can operate inside one of Europe’s most closely watched gambling systems. In an interview with SiGMA News, Dmitrii Smirnov, senior lawyer at EvenBet Gaming, which has just secured a Danish B2B supplier licence, said the market’s appeal lay in “regulatory stability, high channelisation, and strong operator demand for fully compliant suppliers”.
Regulation moves down the chain
The new supplier rules, which came into force on 1 July 2025, shift part of the compliance burden closer to the technology and games that operators depend on. The Danish Gambling Authority’s guidance says that the 5-year supplier licence covers betting, online casino games and “combination games” that mix skill and chance.
A supplier now has to show the regulator not just that its products work, but that its systems and governance can withstand scrutiny.
Smirnov, EvenBet Gaming’s senior lawyer, described the Danish process as “transparent and well-structured”, but not light-touch. “The main challenge lies in coordinating multiple compliance areas simultaneously, including technical certification, security testing, documentation, and governance procedures,” he said. His company, he added, was able to lean on “advanced anti-fraud technology, AML-aligned monitoring, and built-in responsible gambling tools”.
The commercial pitch for B2B suppliers is changing: speed of integration, content volume and commercial terms still matter. But in markets such as Denmark, regulatory readiness is becoming part of the product.
The channelisation bargain
Denmark can push harder on supplier oversight because its wider regulatory model has delivered something most European regulators want: a high proportion of gambling taking place inside the licensed market. In the Danish Gambling Authority’s 2024 market review, online channelisation was put at 91.5 per cent, one of the highest rates in Europe. The overall gambling market reached DKK11.0bn (€1.47bn) in gross gaming revenue in 2024, while online gambling accounted for 68 per cent of the total market.
The regulator has been explicit that this is a balancing act. In an August 2025 interview with SiGMA News, Danish Gambling Authority director Anders Dorph explained: “If you put too many restrictions on the legal market, you make it impossible for them to compete.” He added that “the legal market must have access to new games and favourable conditions.”
To compete with unlicensed sites, legal operators need suppliers that can bring fresh products to market quickly, without falling outside the rules. “The higher our channelisation rate, the more players we keep in the legal, regulated environment, where there are rules, safeguards, and support if people develop gambling problems,” Dorph told SiGMA News.
A European trend
England and Sweden have already moved towards tighter scrutiny of the supply chain, and other European regulators are asking who should be accountable when a product, platform or data feed sits behind several licensed brands. Malta’s latest licensing data also shows how prominent B2B authorisations have become in one of Europe’s main gambling hubs: according to the regulator’s interim figures for the first half of 2025, B2B operators accounted for 55.5 per cent of the total licence base, 64.3 per cent of new licence applications and 87.5 per cent of licences issued.
Dorph acknowledged that Denmark had looked abroad when drawing the line between operator and supplier responsibility. “We saw this happen in England. We saw it in Sweden. Of course, we were inspired by that,” he explained.
For operators, a licensed supplier does not remove due diligence. Smirnov said operators still need to run their own checks, but a licence “reduces onboarding friction and simplifies compliance discussions”. That may prove to be the commercial value of the regime: not simply access to Denmark, but a badge of regulatory competence that travels well.
There is a risk that higher licensing costs and heavier certification demands favour larger suppliers. Smirnov conceded that “more advanced licensing frameworks can, of course, be challenging for smaller suppliers”, while arguing that they also improve transparency and trust.
That tension is likely to define the next phase of European B2B regulation. Supplier licensing may make markets safer and easier to supervise, but it may also narrow the field to companies with the money, lawyers and technical teams to keep up.
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