The new CEO of Kombispel, Jonas Nygren, took office in the midst of a full-scale criticism storm. Kombispel's subcontractor – a telemarketing company in Barcelona – was exposed by Dagens Nyheter for using unfair sales methods targeting the elderly and confused. The old board was urged to resign and the CEO was fired with immediate effect.
50 refunds
After the exposure, Kombispel stopped telephone sales. Investigations of the license holders – S, SSU, and S-women – are ongoing at the Consumer Agency and the Gaming Inspectorate.
About 60 customers have contacted the lottery company with demands for refunds since the end of September. Of these, about 50, "routine cases" according to Nygren, have also received them.
The others are a bit more complicated cases. But we expect to be done with all cases within a week or two, he says to TT.
Operating with a profit
Last year, the lottery gave a total of 17.5 million kronor to the Social Democrats and SSU. After the exposure, the number of customers leaving the lottery has increased and the number of new customers has decreased. Nygren does not answer how this has affected Kombispel's economy. Nor does he say how much the income has been affected by stopping the largest source of new sales – telemarketing.
It's clear that it has had an impact, Nygren notes.
Currently, it is not possible to conduct any telephone sales from Kombispel itself.
We are working on finding new ways to work. At the same time, one must remember that the downside of telemarketing is that it is a fairly expensive channel. You get many customers, but you also lose many customers. There is a greater inflow and outflow, and less loyalty among telemarketing customers.
Are you operating with a profit since you stopped telemarketing?
We sell enough lottery tickets and have enough loyal customers for there to be a profit, a surplus.
"Feels like ten years"
Since CEO Jonas Nygren took office in mid-September, much has been about supporting employees and handling media inquiries, he says to TT.
It feels like I've been here for ten years, but it's only been two months.
It's tough to work in an organization that is under such heavy pressure. But one thing that is positive, when you are scrutinized and exposed like this, is that you get the opportunity to think anew and work differently.
Corrected: An earlier version contained an error regarding the location of the telemarketing company hired by Kombispel.
Dagens Nyheter revealed in September that the Social Democrats' lottery company Kombispel, via the telemarketing company Effective Communication, sold lottery tickets to people who likely did not understand the terms of purchase, such as that lottery subscriptions need to be cancelled.
Employees have described the sales methods as "harassment".
Since May 2022 until September 2024, Kombispel has been reported to the Consumer Agency tens of times, and several of these concern telephone sales.
Supervisory cases against S, SSU, and S-women, who are license holders of the lottery, are ongoing at the Gaming Inspectorate and the Consumer Agency.
In 2023, the lottery business gave 10.6 million kronor to the Social Democrats' party fund and 6.9 million to the youth organization SSU.
