SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Kindred Group Plc trades with confidence towards achieving its annual corporate guidance on firm cost controls and sustainable income.
Publishing its H1 2024 Interim trading accounts, the Stockholm-listed online gambling group’s H1 corporate revenues stood at £635m, up 4% on 2023 comparatives of £614m.
Headline growth reflects strong Q2 trading, in which Kindred brands serviced 1.7m active customers (+12%) generating an income of £328m, up 7% on corresponding 2023 results of £307m.
Period trading withstood the full closure of Kindred’s US business, as revenue focused returned to core markets and generating sustainable income.
Of significance, operating on new cost controls, Kindred generated a Q2 EBITDA result of £74m, up 32% on like-for-like 2023 comparatives of £55m, and marking its best earnings quarter since Q3 2021 (result: £84m).
Year-to-date, sees Kindred track underlying H1 EBITDA of £133m, and profits after tax £76m, with results indexing a loss from ‘discontinued operations’ of £2.7m.
Group CEO Nils Andén commented: “Building on our solid start to 2024, I am pleased to present a very positive set of second-quarter results for Kindred.
“We continue to demonstrate our resilience and strategic execution, which is reflected in our strong performance across our market portfolio. The vast majority of our top markets have grown year-on-year, which is very encouraging.”
A breakdown of income saw Kindred generate respective B2C and B2B revenues of £615m (H12023: £595m) and £21m (H12023: £18m). Kindred maintains its revenue make-up of generating 84% income from regulated markets.
Q2 trading saw Kindred achieve sportsbook revenues of £137m, as trading was uplifted by “strong sportsbook activity throughout, with Euro 2024 boosting customer engagement towards the end of the period. Favourable results, in combination with a record share of Bet Builder activity, delivered a historic high sportsbook margin of 12%.”
Sportsbook growth offset stagnant B2C casino and gaming revenues which stood at £179m (-1%) with performance linked to the closure of “North American operations, casino & games Gross winnings revenue is showing growth of 1%.”
Across Western European markets, Q2 trading saw Kindred generate revenues of £208m (+16%) – underlying double-digit growth in the markets of the Netherlands (+17%), France (+41%) and Belgium (+12%). Whilst in the UK, Kindred trades at +4% above its expected guidance.
Kindred maintains static revenue results in the Nordics of £71m, as Swedish declines offset growth in Denmark. Continued adjustments in Sweden see brands implement “additional safer gambling and affordability measures were implemented across all brands in the market putting pressure on Gross winnings revenue from customers in higher value segments.”
Consolidated accounts saw Kindred report lower H1 expenditure on salaries of £76m and marketing costs of £105m as group administrative expenses stood at £152m (H12023: £163m).
On cost controls, CEO Anden noted: “We have directed efforts on improving marketing efficiency and focusing investments in markets and channels that are most likely to deliver top-line growth.
“We also see an underlying trend of marketing cost reduction related to tightening of regulation across all markets. This reduction, alongside improved efficiency, are trends we will likely see continue. We are confident this will not adversely impact performance, as demonstrated by our strong results, and instead shows our ability to utilize marketing spend in a more effective way.”
