Analysis on EDITORIAL REVIEW
Public Perceptions of the Horse Industry and Gambling’s Role in Sweden
A new ATG–Demoskop survey links horses to “meaningful leisure” for youth – and shows how Swedish public opinion weighs gambling in that picture.
Intro
Swedes see the horse industry as an important part of society, but have limited insight into how it is funded. In a new nationwide survey from Demoskop, commissioned by ATG, 73 percent say the horse industry is important for children’s and young people’s leisure and development, while only 17 percent believe that betting on trotting and racing is one of its main funding sources. At the same time, 49 percent consider gambling revenues from trotting and racing a reasonable way to help finance the sector, and 61 percent think gambling companies have a legitimate place in society, provided they follow laws and rules. Together, these findings offer a rare, data‑driven look at how horses, meaningful leisure and gambling companies intersect in Swedish public opinion.
A new ATG–Demoskop survey links horses to “meaningful leisure” for youth – and shows how Swedish public opinion weighs gambling in that picture.
Swedish horse culture and “meaningful leisure”
In Swedish youth policy, “meaningful leisure” does not simply mean spare time. It refers to safe, organized activities in which young people feel they belong, develop skills, and take responsibility – typically in associations, sports clubs, or cultural groups. Riding schools and stables fit this definition almost perfectly: they are physical places to go after school, they bring together children, teenagers, and adults, and they offer a structure of lessons, stable duties, competitions, and everyday routines.
Research on horse environments often describes the stable as an informal leadership school, especially for girls. Young people caring for horses learn to show up reliably, handle risk around large animals, read non‑verbal signals and coordinate peers – a bundle of soft skills that can be hard to replace elsewhere. International work on equine‑assisted learning points in the same direction, linking contact with horses to improved communication, emotional regulation and the ability to lead without formal power.
The Demoskop survey reflects this broader understanding. When respondents are asked how important horses and the horse industry are for different aspects of society, “children and young people’s leisure and development” ranks at the top, alongside contributions to public health, rural vitality, culture, tradition and jobs. When they are asked to imagine that horses and the horse industry in Sweden become significantly smaller, the most common concern is worse access to meaningful leisure for children and young people, followed by fewer social meeting places and weaker public health. As ATG’s Head of Communications, Camilla Hasselström, puts it, “The horse industry contributes to society in many ways – from meaningful leisure for children and young people to jobs and vitality in rural areas. But if people do not know how it is financed, it is easy to take it for granted.”
Trotting races are still one of Sweden’s most visible betting products, combining live sport, analysis and wagering in the same moment.
ATG’s role in a wider horse ecosystem
ATG, Aktiebolaget Trav och Galopp, was founded in 1974 by Svensk Travsport and Svensk Galopp to finance trotting and thoroughbred racing in Sweden through betting. Since then, the company’s surplus has been returned to horse sport and has become a central funding source for trotting, racing, and large parts of the organized horse industry. According to ATG, its contribution in 2025 amounted to around SEK 2.3 billion to its owner organizations, supporting racetracks, prize money, and wider horse‑sector activities, including jobs, youth programs, and horse‑welfare‑related initiatives.
This makes ATG a significant financial engine – but not the only one – in a broader ecosystem where family fees, voluntary work, sponsorship, and various forms of public support also play crucial roles for riding schools, facilities, and clubs. ATG’s press material highlights, for example, 32 trotting schools, more than 15,000 trotting horses in training all year round, and activities that contribute to employment, meaningful leisure, and a vibrant countryside. The overall picture is of a horse sector resting on several funding legs, with horse betting as one of the economic pillars that many people do not clearly see. Some public bodies, including the Swedish Competition Authority, have also questioned whether it is sustainable in the long term for a single operator to carry such a large share of the sector’s financing, underlining that the current model is part of an ongoing policy discussion rather than a finished solution.
The survey confirms the basic knowledge gap. Asked how they think the horse industry – riding schools, trotting and youth activities – is mainly financed today, 49 percent of respondents choose fees from private individuals and 35 percent choose voluntary work and associations, while only 17 percent select gambling revenues from trotting and racing as one of the most important sources. A further 20 percent answer that they do not know. Gambling revenues only really enter the picture when respondents are prompted to think about them.
Opinion research turns the vague idea of “public opinion” into concrete numbers – but it also raises questions about who asks the questions and how the results are used.
What the data actually says
The ATG–Demoskop study was carried out as an online survey among 2,031 people in Sweden aged 18 and over, weighted by gender, age and region; 19 percent of respondents are trotting bettors. The results sharpen several points that matter to anyone working with gambling.
The first is that the horse industry has broad, socially anchored support. 73 percent say the horse industry is important for children and young people’s leisure and development, and many also highlight its importance for public health, rural vitality, culture, tradition and employment. People with personal contact with horses rate its importance higher than those without; women are consistently more positive than men; and older respondents (55+) are more positive than younger adults. More than half of all respondents say it is very important that horse‑related activities, such as riding schools, trotting schools, sport, and events, are available in Sweden, with stronger support in rural areas and among trotting bettors.
The second is that many believe youth leisure would be directly harmed if the sector were to shrink. When asked what would happen if horses and the horse industry became significantly smaller, 63 percent of respondents expect worse access to meaningful leisure for children and young people, 40 percent foresee fewer social meeting places and less sense of community, 36 percent worry about fewer jobs (especially in rural areas) and 36 percent about loss of culture and tradition. Around one third mention negative effects on public health through reduced exercise and mental well‑being.
The third is that gambling revenues are underestimated – but often accepted when made explicit. On the funding question, only 17 percent of respondents believe that gambling revenues from trotting and racing are among the main ways the horse sector is financed today. Yet when the survey asks directly whether such revenues are a reasonable source of funding, 49 percent say they agree fully or to a large extent. 38 percent think the horse industry should receive more public support, and 37 percent agree that it contributes to society in a way that justifies funding from tax revenues.
In parallel, 61 percent say that gambling companies have a legitimate place in society, on the condition that they follow laws and rules. Summing up the rationale for commissioning the study, Camilla Hasselström says: “With this survey, we want a clearer picture of how Swedes see the role of the horse industry in society and the role of gambling companies as financiers of the horse industry. These are important questions at a time when the gambling market is increasingly scrutinised and the conditions for a vibrant horse industry are becoming tougher.” ATG’s stated aim, in other words, is to ground the debate in what people actually think, rather than in assumptions.
At the same time, the picture that emerges from the ATG–Demoskop survey is not the only lens through which the horse industry and its financing are viewed. Swedish competition authorities have previously questioned whether it is sustainable in the long term for so much of the sector’s funding to depend on one dominant operator, warning that this can cement market structures and limit competition. In other markets, operators such as Kindred have tried to build trust through transparency by publishing regular figures on how much of their revenue comes from high‑risk gambling, but those disclosures have also prompted tougher questions from media and policymakers about how quickly that share is actually falling. Read in that broader context, ATG’s survey looks less like a final answer on legitimacy and more like one contribution to an ongoing debate about how horse‑related activities should be funded and how gambling companies should demonstrate that they deserve a place in society.
Internationally, most surveys around horse betting have either focused on welfare and trust in horse sport or on the views of active racing bettors. Recent UK research on public attitudes to horse sport, for example, centres on equine welfare and the conditions under which people feel they can trust racing as a whole, rather than on betting as a funding source. Other projects, such as the Horse Racing Bettors Forum’s surveys in Britain, target frequent racing punters and map their habits, demographics and concerns – including how to make racing more attractive to women and younger adults. Against that backdrop, the ATG – Demoskop study stands out by combining questions about the social value of horses with questions about gambling, funding and legitimacy in a single, representative sample of the Swedish public.
Beyond funding and public acceptance, the ATG–Demoskop survey also digs into why people gamble in the first place – motives and emotions. It treats horses not only as a leisure activity, but as an industry that shapes jobs, rural businesses and even how open landscapes are maintained. Taken together, the findings offer a wider view of how horse sport, gambling products and everyday Swedish life are more closely connected than they might seem at first glance.
Why this matters for the gambling industry
For an iGaming audience, the most interesting aspect of this story is less a single percentage and more the approach. By asking an independent research firm to measure how people view the horse industry, how they think it is financed, and under what conditions they accept gambling companies, ATG is choosing to put numbers behind questions that are often answered with slogans. The results show that many Swedes explicitly connect horses to meaningful leisure for children and young people, that they worry about losing that if the sector weakens, and that the role of gambling revenues is largely invisible until someone asks, at which point many find it reasonable.
In a market where gambling is increasingly scrutinized, this type of opinion research offers operators and regulators a shared factual basis for discussing the relationship among products, funding flows, and everyday life. For ATG, it becomes a way to demonstrate, with real data and direct quotes rather than marketing alone, how its core business sits alongside something the Swedish public clearly cares about.
For ATG, putting this kind of data on the table is a calculated move: it can strengthen the argument that horse betting funds something the public values, but it also raises expectations around future transparency, invites scrutiny of how independent the research really is, and plugs directly into ongoing debates about competition, tax and regulatory oversight.
