Fennica Gaming launches online casino titles in Quebec
Online games developer Fennica Gaming has launched its online casino games on Loto-Quebec’s digital platform.
Loto-Quebec operates the province’s government-run online gaming service, the only legal casino platform in the province.
This will be the first time that players in Canada have been able to access Fennica Gaming’s titles. The launch was celebrated by teams from Fennica Gaming’s parent company, the Veikkaus Group, with staff in Helsinki and Montreal participating in joint events.
Speaking about the launch, Fennica Gaming’s Senior Vice President for Customers and Marketing, Joni Hovi, explained the significance of the occasion, saying, “Expanding into the Canadian market and to Quebec is an important milestone for us. We aim to scale rapidly and to deliver high-quality content to regulated markets. This launch reflects our commitment to long-term growth and our ability to adapt to diverse market needs.”
Kirsi Lagus, Senior Vice President of Portfolio and Product Development at Fennica Gaming, added, “The technical integration, game development, localization, certification, releasing and UAT processes went smoothly. We worked closely with Loto-Québec to ensure compliance with local regulations and to meet the highest standards of quality.”
Over the summer, Fennica Gaming was also granted a gaming-related vendor license by the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates, expanding its presence to the Middle East.
Charlotte Capewell brings her passion for storytelling and expertise in writing, researching, and the gambling industry to every article she writes. Her specialties include the US gambling industry, regulator legislation, igaming, and more.
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The Backstory
How Quebec became the next test for Fennica’s expansion
Fennica Gaming’s arrival on Loto-Québec’s platform lands at the intersection of two forces: a wave of content suppliers racing to secure regulated market footholds and Canada’s unique mix of provincial monopolies and open licensing. Quebec’s government-run platform is the province’s only legal online casino, making it a gateway that concentrates both exposure and scrutiny. For a supplier under Finland’s Veikkaus Group, success here is more than distribution. It is a benchmark for localization, certification and speed of integration that can set the tone for broader North American ambitions.
The launch follows a year in which Fennica moved quickly to convert its B2B ambitions into marketable, certified products. The company, which only began rolling out online titles in late 2024, has emphasized a compliance-first approach. That stance is essential in Quebec, where the single-operator system compresses the competitive field into a race to be indispensable content on one storefront. The payoff is a direct line to a large, concentrated audience, but the risks include high bar for quality and ongoing regulatory oversight.
This timing also speaks to a wider pipeline push among suppliers. As larger incumbents and newer studios bid to refresh casino lobbies, Loto-Québec’s curation choices ripple across the market, signaling what content mixes resonate with local players and what technical standards are becoming table stakes for vendors.
Inside the monopoly gateway and its growing supplier roster
Loto-Québec has steadily broadened its content stack, giving players more variety and the operator more levers to manage engagement. Earlier this year, the lottery tapped another aggregator in a move that brought proprietary studios and partner content to the province. In January, Bragg Gaming said it would deliver titles from its Atomic Slot Lab and Indigo Magic studios, along with partner content from King Show Games, Bluberi, Incredible Technologies and Sega Sammy Creation, via its HUB and RGS stack. That deal, detailed in Bragg Gaming enters deal with Loto-Québec, framed the lottery as a strategic account and promised regular new releases.
Quebec’s single-operator model means platform decisions essentially define the competitive landscape. Adding Fennica’s catalog to a lineup that already includes Bragg’s proprietary and “Powered By” partner titles underscores Loto-Québec’s two-track strategy: blend established pipelines with newer voices to keep lobbies fresh while maintaining regulatory discipline. For suppliers, that creates both opportunity and urgency. A spot on the platform can lift brand recognition across Canada and support subsequent licensing bids, but it also heightens the need to deliver steady updates and province-specific features that reflect local preferences.
Ontario’s open market as a proving ground
While Quebec runs a state monopoly, Ontario operates one of North America’s most competitive regulated igaming markets. Fennica laid groundwork there earlier this year by securing a B2B supplier license from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. The approval, outlined in Fennica Gaming obtains Ontario gaming license, gives the company access to a market defined by private operators, rapid release cycles and data-driven content iteration.
Ontario has become a bellwether for suppliers gauging product-market fit at scale. Newcomers are using operator partnerships to validate portfolios before expanding elsewhere. In March, Evoplay followed this playbook when it went live in the province through Rivalry after receiving AGCO approval, positioning a slate of 20 titles to test local appetite and inform future builds. That step is chronicled in Evoplay brings online gaming titles to Ontario via Rivalry partnership.
For Fennica, Ontario’s licensing helps shore up credibility with regulators and operators across North America. It also complements Quebec’s concentrated exposure with Ontario’s competitive churn, where content must earn real estate through performance. The two markets provide complementary laboratories: Quebec for careful, curated growth under a single operator, Ontario for broad A/B testing and fast learning cycles across multiple platforms.
A global licensing sprint to widen distribution
Fennica’s Canadian push is part of a wider licensing campaign aimed at building a diversified revenue base and hedging regulatory risk across jurisdictions. Over the summer, the company secured a gaming-related vendor license from the United Arab Emirates’ General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority, a step that underscores the supplier’s appetite for early-mover positions in emerging regulatory frameworks. The approval, described in Fennica Gaming granted UAE license, opens commercial doors in a nascent market that could favor vendors with strong compliance credentials and adaptable technology.
These authorizations follow Fennica’s initial content debut in late 2024 and early expansions into more than a dozen regulated markets. The sequence—launch content, secure key regional licenses, then partner with flagship operators—resembles the blueprint many mid-sized suppliers now use to scale. Each new jurisdiction adds regulatory complexity but also increases negotiating leverage with operators seeking reliable pipelines. The UAE license, in particular, signals an intent to balance established igaming hubs with greenfield opportunities where content standards and player expectations are still being shaped.
This multipronged approach mirrors strategies by other suppliers looking to convert RGS investments into recurring distribution. The logic is straightforward: more licensed doors mean more chances to place games, optimize release cadences and smooth revenue across seasonal and regional swings.
Content pipelines, RGS muscle and the omnichannel shift
The race to secure shelf space is increasingly a contest of delivery infrastructure. Remote game server stacks and aggregation hubs determine how quickly titles can be certified, localized and pushed live across operators and jurisdictions. Bragg’s deployment with Loto-Québec highlights the advantages of a combined HUB and RGS approach, while Fennica’s smooth integration in Quebec underscores the value of building to regulator standards early.
The trend reaches beyond Canada. In Mexico, PlayCity Casino recently expanded its digital library with a slate of Konami Gaming titles, delivering them via Konami’s RGS to mirror proven land-based hits online. The move, captured in PlayCity Casino expands igaming offering with Konami slot titles, shows how omnichannel content and server infrastructure can extend a brand’s life cycle across verticals. For provincial monopolies and open markets alike, these tools shorten time to market and make it easier to rotate seasonal or event-driven releases without heavy custom engineering.
The stakes are high for operators and suppliers as player tastes fragment. Faster pipelines can translate into better retention and lower content risk, especially when paired with analytics that inform theme selection, volatility tuning and feature sets. That dynamic favors suppliers with robust RGS capabilities and a track record of compliant, low-friction integrations.
What to watch as Canada’s igaming map evolves
Quebec’s addition of Fennica’s catalog puts more pressure on content to perform in a curated environment. Expect Loto-Québec to continue balancing recognizable franchises with distinctive new mechanics as it calibrates the lobby for depth and differentiation. In Ontario, watch for Fennica to leverage its license with operator partnerships and staggered releases to test stickiness and optimize for local cohorts, following a path other suppliers have taken as described in the Evoplay-Rivalry agreement.
More broadly, the Canadian market’s split personality—monopoly in Quebec, competition in Ontario—offers a live case study in how distribution models influence content road maps. Suppliers that can thrive in both settings, backed by resilient RGS infrastructure and consistent regulatory execution, are likely to gain share as operators chase engagement and margins. With new jurisdictions like the UAE entering the frame, Fennica’s next moves will indicate whether its early integration wins can be scaled into a durable multiregional footprint.
