SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Kindred Group has reported progress on its ‘Journey to Zero’ safer gambling goal, reporting its lowest-ever share of revenue from harmful gambling of 3%.
This marks a 0.3 percentage point decrease on the 3.3% registered in Q4 2022, which has been the most consistent figure throughout the Group’s mission since inception back in 2021.
When the goal was first adopted, Kindred set itself a target of 0% revenue from harmful gambling by 2023. Whilst this has evidently not been achieved, the group has continued to chip away its proportion of income from these sources. 
Henrik Tjärnström, Kindred Group CEO, said: “We have continuously emphasised the importance of detecting and engaging with our customers who are showing markers of harm
“To prevent harmful behaviour, early intervention is critical, and I am glad that we can see the result of the roll out of automated interventions that we have done in some of our markets.”
As mentioned above, since outlining its goal in 2021, Kindred has largely achieved quarterly revenue share from harmful gambling of 3.3%, although Q3 2022 saw a jump to 3.8%.
Explaining the reason for this sudden uptick, Kindred attributed the rise at the time to the fourth quarter being a time of general increase in harmful gambling generally.
The figure was pushed back to 3.3% in Q4 2023, with the latest cut down to 3% attributed by Kindred to enhancement of the customer’s responsible gambling journey and interventions by its responsible play teams leading to ‘improved gambling behaviour’.
As it stands, Kindred’s calculated improvement effect after interventions’ for Q1 2023 is 83%, a slight uptick on 82.6% and 82.1% registered in Q3 and Q4, but a decline on the 84.7% in Q2 2022.
“Going forward I look forward to following the holistic approach and collaboration across different teams within Kindred,” Tjärnström concluded.
“Responsible gambling is not a factor only for one team, but it is something that every single employee contributes to through their knowledge and commitment to reducing harmful revenue.
“By our tech teams working hand in hand with the responsible gambling and customer facing teams, we can swiftly release improved interventions across different markets. All in line with our Journey towards Zero road map.”
Kindred’s publication of its latest responsible gambling figures comes ahead of two major developments for the firm, and in the case of the second update, for UK gambling as a whole.
On Wednesday, the Stockholm-listed betting group is due to announce its trading results for the first quarter, following a tricky Q4 which saw Kindred fall short of targets, particularly due to the FIFA World Cup having less of an impact on its operations than anticipated.
Meanwhile, the Gambling Act review White Paper is widely expected for publication on Thursday, with far-reaching ramifications for the UK betting industry in which Kindred’s Unibet and 32Red brands operate.
