Matchen is yet another game in Svenska Spel's Oddset family, which it joined in 1986. The object of the game is simply to guess the end result in a sports match of some kind. The bet is chosen by the player, but must be between 10 and 500 SEK. Usually, there is at least one match each day that is playable, as the system supports twelve simultaneous instances of Matchen. Matchen can be played on many types of sports. Some of the most common are; football (European), ice-hockey, bandy, indoor bandy and handball.
As the odds are based on the player's bets, they are constantly changing and the exact odds are available first after the closing of the game, usually about five minutes before the start of the match. The amount won is simply the bet multiplied by the final odds for the winning combination. The highest odds ever were achieved in 1988. The players who had guessed the ending result in the match between Luton and Oxford correctly got 42,545.30 times their bets back as wins. (The result was 7-4.)
Should a match become cancelled or aborted for any reason, the money is usually paid back to the players. However, there have been some occasions when the match has been aborted just minutes before it would normally end. In some of those occasions where it has been clear that no change in standings would be imminent, Svenska Spel has declared the standings at the time of the abortion to be the final standings.
In 2000, the total of all bets on Matchen was 269.6 million SEK. Of those, 70 percent were given back as wins. In the same year, 487,985 winning bets were made on Matchen. That made the average winning amount that year 386.73 SEK. In case no player has guessed the winning result in a match correctly, the money allocated in that instance of Matchen are not paid back, but instead transferred to another, later, instance of Matchen and given out as wins there instead.
One has to be at least eighteen years old in order to be allowed to place bets on Matchen.
Sources:
http://www.svenskaspel.se
Various brochures from Svenska Spel
Things I've picked up along the way...