Kindred Group Archives

July 25, 2023

Kindred leading in Netherlands as revenue up 29% in Q2

In its Q2 financial report Kindred posted a 29% year-on-year increase in revenue to £307.3m (€356m/$394m).

Kindred’s Q2 focus on cost controls amid an ongoing strategic review and a strong performance in the Netherlands are keeping the business on track to surpass full-year earnings expectations, according to interim CEO Nils Andén.

A total of £63.6m of sales was generated in the Netherlands. Andén said in an earnings call today that he believes Kindred is now the market leader in the country.

Sports betting growth drives revenue

Performance was positively impacted by an increase in sports betting, favourable results and lower bonus costs. Sports betting gross margin after free bets was 11.3% in Q2. This was up from 9.3% in the previous year and above the group’s long-term average of 9.6%.

However, excluding the Netherlands, active customers and gross winnings revenue remained relatively flat. The business said this was due to headwinds in Belgium and Norway offsetting growth in ..

January 13, 2023

Kindred CEO: “No item is sacred” when it comes to cost-cutting

Henrik Tjärnström, CEO of Kindred, has said that “no item is sacred” in terms of cutting costs on an earnings call addressing Kindred’s Q4 trading update released earlier today (13 January).

Although Kindred’s Q4 revenue is projected to rise 24.5% year-on-year to £305.0m (€343.1m/$372.2m), Kindred said this was not up to expectations and vowed to take “immediate action”.

Addressing this, Tjärnström said that Kindred would review all areas of cost in order to improve spending for 2023, adding that no cost-cutting is off the table.

“We are looking to review all cost items for efficiency purposes and refreshing our channels for spending in 2023,” he said. “We cannot comment on the overall number at this point.

“But we’re clearly looking across the P&L [profit and loss], and no item is sacred in that sense.”

He said this was due to how vastly the Q4 revenue is set to depart from Kindred’s, and the market’s, expectations.

“We take this very seriously, and the deviation that we see fro..

October 27, 2022

Kindred still committed to US, but won’t break even until at least 2026

Kindred chief executive Henrik Tjärnström said the operator does not expect to break even in the US states where it is currently active until 2026, but that it would nonetheless remain committed to the market.

During an earnings call following Kindred’s Q3 results, Tjärnström offered an update on Kindred’s performance in the US market. Here, he said the business hoped to break even by 2026.

“We are now live in seven states,” he said. “We’re going to reduce that to six when we leave Iowa and then increase it again to seven with Washington.

“We have been in an investment position across our state footprint and it will take some time, a few years to achieve profitability.

“We’re expecting the contribution from 2022 to be negative from 2021, but then in 2023 we’re reducing those losses and by 2026 we’ll be breakeven across our current state footprint.”

Last week, FuboTV became one of the highest-profile operators to exit the US market, highlighting the difficulty in turning a profit ..

October 27, 2022

Kindred set for strong Q4 as Netherlands “exceeds expectations” in Q3

Kindred said it is “exceeding expectations” in the Netherlands and expects rapid revenue growth in the final months of the year, after reporting its first quarter of revenue since reentering the market.

In Q3 of 2021, Kindred reported revenue of £277.8m, which was down by 6.9% year-on-year. Almost all of this revenue came from B2C operations, at £271.9m, while B2B revenue – from Relax Gaming – was £5.9m.

The decline in revenue continued to be down to the operator withdrawing from the Netherlands at the start of Q4 2021. While the operator returned to the country during the quarter, generating revenue again, the amount Kindred took in was less than before the country regulated, as was expected.

Kindred said it was “exceeding expectations” with 137,000 active Dutch customers, and brought in around £400,000 per day since launching on 11 July. Chief executive Henrik Tjärnström added that the business had around a 15% market share in the country.

“Thanks to our strong brand awareness, u..

October 24, 2022

Kindred expands in US with Unibet tribal launch in Washington

Kindred Group is to launch its Unibet brand in the state of Washington through a partnership with the Swinomish tribe and its Swinomish Casino and Lodge in Anacortes.

Under the deal, which will run for six years and include a five-year right to extend, Kindred and Swinomish will launch a co-branded Unibet and Swinomish retail sportsbook at the land-based casino.

Online betting is currently not legal in Washington, with the exception of mobile-on-property betting while at land-based casinos.

The launch is subject to licensure and regulatory approvals and would mark the seventh US state in which Unibet is offering sports betting.

“We are very excited to expand our footprint in the US, and to do so together with the Swinomish tribe,” Kindred senior vice-president for North America, Manuel Stan, said. “The opening of a sportsbook lounge at the Swinomish Casino and Lodge will allow us to offer best in class sports betting experiences.”

Kindred added that it would continue to invest in ..

October 7, 2022

Lotteritilsynet halts daily fines as Kindred stops targeting Norway

Norwegian regulator Lotteritilsynet has paused issuing daily fines to Kindred Group after the operator confirmed its Trannel subsidiary would no longer target consumers in the country.

However, the operator added that it had done so only as a show of goodwill and that it was confident that its legal position was still correct.

Earlier this month, Lotteritilsynet warned Kindred that it would impose a fine of NOK1.198m (£100,106/€114,549/$112,184) for every day that Trannel did not withdraw from Norway.

The daily fine was due to come into effect three weeks after the day that Lotteritilsynet decided to implement the fine. That decision came on 14 September, after it previously warned the operator it would issue fines if it did not exit the market.

The regulator said these fines would only stop when the amount owed reaches Trannel’s annual gross profit, which the regulator estimated to be approximately NOK437m, or when the operator withdraws from the country.

Trannel does not hold a ..

July 27, 2022

Kambi pivots to modularisation as DraftKings exit continues to hit Q2 revenue

Betting supplier Kambi will increase its focus on modularised products rather than its full sportsbook solution – and may seek to make acquisitions – after key client DraftKings’ migration away from Kambi’s sportsbook continued to affect its earnings in Q2.

Revenue for the supplier for the quarter ended 30 June was down by 18.8% from Q2 of 2022 to €34.7m (£29.2m/$35.2m), a change the business said was due to the migration of US betting giant DraftKings away from Kambi’s platform and onto the SBTech product it acquired in 2020.

While DraftKings has already completed its migration, two other key clients are also taking steps to move away from its platform in favour of in-house options. Unibet operator Kindred has been building its own platform, set to launch when its partnership with Kambi ends in 2024.

If DraftKings – which produced 25% of Kambi’s revenue the prior year – is excluded, revenue was up 16% from Q2 of 2021.

Penn National gaming, meanwhile, acquired theScore last year, ..

July 25, 2022

DIY or third-party: the sportsbook technology debate

The debate over whether operators should build their own technology or use a third-party solution has raged for decades, but it appears to have grown more intense as the US market opens. However, as Daniel O’Boyle reports, it may not be a question with a clear answer

It’s said that if you want something done well, you should do it yourself.

That appears to be an adage many sports betting operators have taken to heart.

Hop on any earnings call for a US operator, and there will no doubt be plenty of mentions of “proprietary sportsbook technology”.

The demand among operators for in-house solutions is backed up by their money. In 2020, DraftKings merged with SBTech, valuing the supplier at $634.1m. Last year, Caesars acquired William Hill for $3.7bn, mostly for its proprietary technology.

Meanwhile, theScore announced a long process to build its own sportsbook technology, which surely played a major part in Penn National Gaming acquiring it for $2bn.

“I don’t want to get distracted b..