In the Spotlight: Sponsor Insight on Data, Visibility, and the Future of Finland’s iGaming Market

Tommi Puskala and Kristoffer Olson

If you strip away the hype, the opening of Finland’s iGaming market is not primarily a story about who shouts the loudest. It is a story about who prepares with discipline, measures what matters, and builds visibility that has a purpose.

That is the perspective from Tommi and Kristoffer of Sponsor Insight, a research company that has spent decades sitting between sponsors and rights holders, translating exposure into evidence and emotion into decision making. In this edition of In the Spotlight, their message is consistent throughout: do the homework, use data properly, and do not try to wing it in a market that is about to professionalise fast.

Why Sponsor Insight Exists

Sponsor Insight was born from a simple observation: when sponsorship is discussed without measurement, it becomes vulnerable to opinion, politics, and whoever controls the loudest narrative.

Tommi and Kristoffer describe the early years as a market education exercise. When they first began selling sponsorship measurement, most buyers did not even have the vocabulary for it. If you sell a toothbrush, everyone understands the product. If you sell sponsorship effect measurement, you first have to explain why it is needed at all.

Over time, the industry has matured. The last decade in particular has brought more professional operators and more structured thinking, but they still see the same recurring weakness: many sponsors cannot clearly articulate why they sponsor, what success looks like, and what they should change if the results are not there.

What Sponsor Insight Actually Does

Their core principle is neutrality. Sponsor Insight does not sell sponsorship. They measure it.

Kristoffer summarises their role as ensuring that data lives between the rights holder and the sponsor, creating transparency and a shared language. The goal is to reduce decision making driven by gut feeling and internal politics, and replace it with comparable facts that help companies understand what they buy and what they get.

Both highlight the most common misconception about sponsorship effectiveness. Companies often start without clear objectives, then struggle to judge whether sponsorship worked. Sponsor Insight’s view is blunt: you can measure almost anything, but the brand must first define what it is trying to achieve.

Their one sentence definition of sponsorship is equally direct: it is a way to sell.

And without data, yes, it becomes guesswork, especially if the brand plans to invest again next year. Without measurement, you learn nothing.

What Is Really Happening in Finland’s iGaming Market Right Now

From Sponsor Insight’s vantage point, Finland is already moving, even before licences are granted. The first phase is valuation. Operators and advisors are assessing what different rights holders, events, leagues, clubs, and media assets are actually worth, and what kind of return can realistically be extracted from each.

They emphasise that many of the incoming operators are professional buyers. They typically know what they are purchasing, and they do not buy blindly. That said, Finland still has its own rules and cultural dynamics, and they see the risk that foreign operators assume that what worked in Sweden or Norway will work the same way in Finland.

On the question of who wins, they do not believe it is simply the biggest budget. They believe the winner is the operator that best understands the target audience and chooses assets that genuinely match that audience.

The Big Winner: Media

When asked what changes most as the market opens, their answer is clear: media is likely to be the largest winner.

In their view, the spend mix will lean heavily toward paid media, with sponsorship still significant, especially early on. They also predict a noisy first phase when everyone tries to secure visibility at the same time, followed by more rational decision making as the market learns what works.

More Than Three Winners

The idea that Finland will be a strict top three market does not convince them. They expect more than three strong brands, potentially ten or more, because many operators will find niches and build profitable segments even without being the number one household name.

Their view is that the market will not be a simple winner versus loser binary. There is room for medium sized brands and even smaller ones, provided they choose the right audience and the right assets.

Sponsorship Success: Planning With the Rights Holder

In a market where everyone will chase visibility, Tommi and Kristoffer say winners will be separated by one thing: planning.

They stress the importance of planning together with the rights holder and using data to maximise the outcome. The form of sponsorship matters less than the execution. In their view, almost any sponsorship can work if you have done the homework, selected the right target group, and avoided provoking the wrong reactions.

They do expect a sponsorship boom. Their estimate is that Finland could see dozens of new sponsor brands entering, perhaps 40 to 50. That, they argue, will force rights holders to professionalise quickly. Competition raises expectations.

The biggest mistake they anticipate from operators is predictable: entering without data, without strategy, and without local help. Finland is a different language, a different culture, and a different sponsorship ecosystem. They recommend using external expertise, ideally more than one perspective, rather than betting everything on a single advisor or one channel.

PR and Communication: The Invisible Competition

If sponsorship is the asset, communication is the multiplier.

They argue that PR and communication play a major role, because sponsorship is often under leveraged. Too many organisations sign a deal and then go silent, fearing that visibility will attract more sales calls. Sponsor Insight points to the opposite approach as best practice: be proud of the partnership, integrate it into a wider narrative, and activate it systematically through both the brand’s and the rights holder’s channels.

On whether Finland is currently a narrative market or an advertising market, their answer leans toward advertising today, but they strongly believe narrative will decide the long game. A coherent story, repeated consistently, supported by data, is what sticks.

They also warn against leaving communications too late. If everyone starts in 2027, the market will look chaotic, with too many announcements landing at once and too little differentiation.

Data Plus Story Is the Combination

Sponsor Insight sees data as the foundation. It can identify what messages resonate, which values matter to the audience, and which assets genuinely deliver attention and recall. But they draw a boundary: they provide the building blocks, not the creative. Brands still need capable partners to turn insight into compelling communication.

The most common visibility mistake they see is also simple: executing without a plan. Visibility without purpose becomes noise, and in sponsorship, noise is expensive.

Their Message to Operators

Their advice is consistent and practical.

Use external helpMap the market nowPlan carefully and do the homeworkDo not rely blindly on one or two sourcesListen widely and validate assumptionsMeasure your brand in Finland early, before the market opens

When asked what matters most for success, visibility, data, or story, they refuse to choose. In their view, you need all three. Visibility creates attention, data guides the decisions, and story turns attention into preference.

Looking Toward 2030

They expect the market to stabilise by 2030. The first two or three years will be turbulent, then the ecosystem should become more professional on both the operator side and the rights holder side. They also believe Finland has the potential to become one of Europe’s more interesting sponsorship and media environments because it is new, not yet fully priced, and about to experience a structural shift.

On who wins, global giants or local players, their answer leans toward global operators that arrive with professional organisations, strong governance, and disciplined execution.

One Sentence: What Decides the Winners Before the Market Opens

Professionalism.

Do the homework properly, use help when you need it, and be prepared to correct course fast when the data tells you something is not working.

Sponsor Insight is an independent research company specialising in the measurement of sponsorship, visibility, and brand impact. The company operates between sponsors and rights holders, providing data driven analysis that helps clients understand what they are buying, what they are getting, and how partnerships can be developed.