During SBC Summit Barcelona, Martyn Lycka hosted a live show where he spoke to Birgitte Sand, former Director of Spillemyndigheden – Denmark’s gambling authority.

In the interview, Lycka asked Sand about the time she’s spent across her leadership roles in the industry. 

Sand answered: “I was asked to take on the role of the Danish gambling regulator. It has been the 12 best years in my career. I thoroughly enjoyed it, I loved it, and that’s why I’m now a consultant in the business.”

With Lycka bringing up the history of regulatory advancements in Denmark, Sand explained that in the years she was the director of Denmark’s Gambling Authority, the market was finally freed from the “European high-class monopoly”. 

She said: “We actually liberalised the market from a very classy European monopoly market where we only allowed a state-owned company to do sports betting. Apart from that, we had lotteries, land-based casinos and slots, but we didn’t really have a legalised online casino and sports betting for everyone. And of course, there were no regulators out there to ask. 

“However, I’m a strong believer in ‘never copy anything’, because it can only go wrong. Your market will always be unique compared to every other market. With that in mind, we developed quite well-functioning legislation.”