Categories: Headline

Veikkaus Lets 400 People Go in Digital Restructuring

  • Finnish operator Veikkaus slashes 400 jobs
  • 1,300 out of 2,000 employees to be offered redundancy
  • Veikkaus is re-focusing on the digital segment entirely

Despite an expanding gaming market in the Nordic countries, Finnish operator Veikkaus is shedding 400 employees in a bid to consolidate its digital footprint.

Veikkaus Has Gone Digital

Finnish operator Veikkaus is pulling out of the land-based business, cutting 400 jobs in the process. Instead, the operator will re-focus its efforts on establishing a digital footprint and rolling out its offer online.

The restructuring is quite impressive, with 1,300 of the company’s 2,000 employees now anticipating voluntary redundancy measures. It’ll be a busy few months for HR, it seems. Most of the employees are based in Helsinki.

A slight silver lining, if one can be found in the gathering storm, is the fact that most of Veikkaus’ employees are employed on part-time positions. Benefiting from the far-reaching restructuring, Veikkaus also wants to reorganize matters on its retail end.

Veikkaus President and CEO Olli Sarekoski outlined the plans ahead of the company in a statement published on the official website:

We want to ensure Veikkaus’ future in the middle of the ever-accelerating digital competition. Players are increasingly switching over towards the digital channels and, as a result of the structural changes in retail trade, our point-of-sale network has experienced a drastic decrease over the past few years.

Mr. Sarekoski cited the above reason for introducing changes to Veikkaus’ points of sale as well as the complete shut-down of restaurant table gaming activities.

Presently, the company’s operations stand at:

  • Veikkaus is planning to introduce redundancy measures for 1,300 out of its 2,000 employees
  • Presently, the company owns 187 restaurant game tables across 162 properties
  • Veikkaus.fi presently offers 200 different online games
  • 42% of Veikkaus’ revenue is generated via the company’s online operations

A World Gone Digital

The advancement of the online segment is not surprising. Given the density of the population in Finland, digital venues are far more accommodating than land-based venues which often require travelling time, not to mention the extra expenditures.

By re-focusing their offer online, Veikkaus can slash much of the costs of its own operations as well.

A similar move has been undertaken by NetEnt, although the company only slashed 55 people in Stockholm, Sweden, in order to pursue further expansion of the game development department.

Sophia Rojas

Growing up around law firms, Sophia keeps our team of reporters atop any legislative developments to follow up with a welcomed dose of positive news as our house trivia nut!

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