Denmark is heading for its greatest tightening of playing guidelines for the reason that market was liberalised in 2012, after a bundle of amendments to the Gambling Act cleared its European Commission assessment earlier this yr and moved towards last adoption in parliament.
The proposals, often called Gambling Package 1, have been notified to the European Commission on 13 January 2026, with the standstill interval ending on 14 April. The amendments had already secured broad help throughout Denmark’s political events in October, and the federal government is working towards an efficient date of 1 January 2027.
The bundle covers each how licensed playing is marketed in Denmark and the way the video games themselves are designed.
Advertising Faces a Whistle-to-Whistle Ban
The most consequential change for sports activities betting operators is a so-called whistle-to-whistle ban. TV promoting will likely be prohibited throughout dwell sports activities broadcasts, together with the ten minutes earlier than and after the published. Live odds shows throughout broadcasts and inside stadiums at sporting occasions may also be banned.
The restrictions prolong properly past tv. Gambling promoting will now not be allowed on public transport or inside 200 metres of faculties, and operators will likely be barred from that includes anybody below the age of 25 of their advertising. Licensed operators may also be required to use age filters to their promoting on social media platforms.
Denmark is just not the primary market to make use of the whistle-to-whistle components. The UK trade adopted an identical measure voluntarily in 2019 by means of the Betting and Gaming Council’s advertising code. The Danish model goes additional in two respects: it’s written into legislation fairly than self-imposed, and it pairs the published ban with the in-stadia odds prohibition.
The Danish Ministry of Taxation has put a quantity on what it will value the licensed market: the whistle-to-whistle ban alone is anticipated to cut back operator income by round DKK 25 million (€3.3 million) per yr.
Bonus Limits and New Game Design Rules
Beyond promoting, the bundle reaches into product design. Online slot video games will now not be permitted to offer gamers the phantasm of a win when the payout is the same as or decrease than the stake, a presentation approach usually described as losses disguised as wins.
Welcome bonuses and VIP programmes face new restrictions as properly. The bonus guidelines are more likely to be essentially the most seen change for gamers, as a result of they are going to reshape the welcome provides that Denmark’s regulated operators at present compete on. Retail digital sports activities video games will moreover be topic to deposit and recreation velocity limits.
The amendments additionally develop operators’ obligation of care obligations, requiring licence holders to watch buyer behaviour extra actively and intervene earlier when play patterns recommend hurt. Denmark already operates ROFUS, the nationwide self-exclusion register administered by the regulator, and the brand new obligations are designed to catch at-risk gamers properly earlier than they attain the purpose of excluding themselves.
Prediction Markets Brought Into Scope
The bundle addresses a query regulators throughout Europe have been circling in 2026: what to do about prediction markets. Denmark’s amendments deliver occasion contracts on real-world outcomes throughout the scope of playing regulation, following strikes in the identical route by Spain, which blocked Polymarket and Kalshi over licensing earlier this yr.
Spillemyndigheden, the Danish Gambling Authority, has spent latest years constructing out its enforcement report on anti-money laundering and illegal-site blocking. The new bundle palms the regulator a significantly wider rulebook to oversee from 2027.
Operators Have a Year to Adapt
With the standstill interval closed and political settlement in place, Danish licence holders now face a compressed preparation window. Marketing groups might want to rebuild media plans across the broadcast restrictions, product groups should audit slot portfolios for the brand new presentation guidelines, and compliance capabilities should doc expanded duty-of-care procedures earlier than the foundations take impact.
The licensed trade has not hidden its alarm. Morten Rønde, director of the Danish commerce affiliation Spillebranchen, described the sector as “shell shocked” by the bundle, telling iGaming Business that “advertising in Danish media is the only advantage that a licensed operator has. Because otherwise it’s just restrictions and taxation.” Rønde warned that squeezing the authorized market too arduous dangers pushing customers towards unlicensed websites.
Denmark has lengthy been thought-about one among Europe’s extra steady regulated markets, with a licensed-market share most jurisdictions envy. The 2027 bundle will check whether or not that stability holds when the licensed market’s strongest acquisition instruments, broadcast promoting and welcome bonuses, are dramatically curtailed on the identical time.
