Taking up the position, Andén has stressed a “strong belief” in the organisation’s business model, in addition to asserting confidence in building on a solid foundation in unleashing the operator’s potential moving forward.

The outgoing Chief Executive brings an end to a near 13 year stint in the role, which began in July 2010 when he stepped up CFO and Deputy CEO duties that began in March 2008.

He began his tenure at the firm under its original identity of the Unibet group in 2003 as a Non-Executive Director and member of the firm’s Audit Committee

“I am very pleased with the board of directors’ choice of Nils Andén as the interim CEO, guaranteeing a smooth hand over”, Tjärnström said. 

In addition to navigating the group through a number of difficult years as the COVID-19 pandemic brought a series of global struggles, Tjärnström has also overseen an ongoing pledge of reducing its share of revenue from harmful gambling to zero per cent.

Most recently, Kindred reported overall first quarter revenue from B2C and B2B operations of £306.4m, up 24.2 per cent year-over-year (Q1 2022: £246.7m). 

B2C units earned revenue of £297.3m, a 23 per cent increase YoY (2022: £242.4m) thanks to a return of operations in the Dutch market as the group observed a temporary suspension in the Netherlands between 1 October 2021 and 3 July 2022. The group has also reaffirmed its guidance for 2023.

“Henrik has been at the helm through many important milestones passed by Kindred and has undoubtedly put his mark in both the history of the company and the industry,” commented Evert Carlsson, Chair of the Board of Directors of Kindred.

“Thus, on behalf of the board of directors and all shareholders I would like to thank Henrik for his valuable contributions to the success of Kindred throughout the years he has led the Company and wish him well in his future endeavours.

“The board of directors is equally pleased and excited to appoint Nils Andén as interim CEO. Nils is naturally very knowledgeable about the operations of Kindred, having worked with Henrik in the executive management team of Kindred. 

“The board of directors deems that Nils is ideally suited to assume this role in these pivotal times for Kindred.”

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Publishing its Interim Report from January to June, Kindred reported that – when excluding the Netherlands and comparing its Q2 success to that of the same period in 2021 – the firm witnessed a one per cent increase from casino and games gross winning revenues while active customers were seven per cent lower. 

However, if Kindred were to include the Netherlands in its performance update – which was excluded due to creation of “distorted comparatives” following the end of the firm’s Dutch activity on September 30, 2021, only re-entering the market on July 4 – then gross winnings revenues would have seen a 30 per cent decrease, with active customers for casino and games also dropping by 26 per cent when compared to the same quarter in 2021, respectively. 

Tjärnström noted: “After a period of short-term headwinds, I look to the future with confidence as we see good progress with the Group’s key strategic priorities. We have received our long-awaited Dutch licence, our Kindred Sportsbook Platform (KSP) remains firmly on track, and Relax Gaming continues to show strong numbers. 

“We are also nearing the end of a period of very tough COVID-19 comparatives, which have been giving a skewed view of our performance.

“Despite the tough comparatives, the casino product segment saw a slight increase of one per cent in gross winnings revenue when excluding the Netherlands. I am pleased to see business remaining stable when compared to the exceptional second quarter of 2021 when COVID-19 limited entertainment options.”

Across the company, total revenue, from both its B2B and B2C operations, totalled £238.7m, with its gross winnings revenue dropping by 36 per cent to £233.5m (2021: £363.7m). Excluding the Dutch figures, its company wide gross winnings revenue only witnessed a 13 per cent decline. 

Moreover, Kindred’s underlying EBITDA, which Tjärnström stated was “not satisfying but was equally severely impacted by not accepting bets from the Dutch market” saw a massive 78 per cent drop to £25.3m when compared to 2021, which stood at £113.7m. The company also reported £7m of profit pre-tax (2021: £102.5m), which dropped to £5.8m after tax (2021:87.1m). 

Alternatively, when looking at the same figures in the first half of 2022, the company’s total revenue from both its B2B and B2C operations dropped from £716.3m in 2021 to £485.4m in 2022. 

Furthemore, its gross winning revenue for H1 this year witnessed a 34 per cent decrease to £475.9m (2021: 716.3m). However, removing the Dutch comparatives only saw Kindred’s revenues decline by 10 per cent.

The company’s underlying EBITDA in the first half of 2022 saw a similar dramatic drop to its Q2 figures at 77 per cent to £49.8m when compared to the same period in 2021 – £219.7m.

Profits pre-tax for H1 2022 came in at £14.6m (2021:187.8m) with post-tax totalling £12.2m (2021:159.7m).

On Kindred’s entry into the Dutch market, Tjärnström commented: “We opened our doors to Dutch players on July 4 and have seen strong customer intake and activity in the period between July 4 and 19. I am very pleased with this initial performance and expect to see our Unibet brand gradually reclaim a leading position in the Netherlands. 

“With the Netherlands being live, we are now waiting for the UK Gambling Act Review to be published. During the last year, the UK market has been impacted by stricter affordability checks self-imposed by the industry. These measures can be expected to increase over the coming quarters. Whilst impacting revenues in the short term, this ensures a more sustainable customer base.”

The report also delved into Relax Gaming’s revenue, which Kindred acquired on October 1, 2021. The new holding was factored into  Kindred’s condensed consolidated income statement, including only revenue generated by Relax Gaming from all gaming operators, excluding its new owner.

During the second quarter this year, Relax’s revenue totalled £5.2m, which was 20 per cent higher than the same period last year, attributed to the launch of six new games, along with the supplier’s Dream Drop jackpot feature launched in May. 

On Relax, Tjärnström stated: “Relax Gaming is performing well. The team is continuing to deliver high new operator intake and new product releases, such as the ‘Dream Drop’ jackpot which has provided a unique feature that is appreciated by both the end customer and game suppliers.”

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Praising the licence approval as “an important part” of its strategy to operate in locally licensed markets, Kindred will now launch its flagship brand Unibet in the Netherlands. 

Henrik Tjärnström, CEO of Kindred Group, stated: “The Netherlands is a large and important European market and one that we look forward to operating in with a local licence. 

“We have been advocating local licence schemes for the past decade, and are thrilled that our newly awarded licence in the Netherlands will allow us to deepen and develop our involvement in the Dutch society, as well as actively contribute to a fair and sustainable gambling market. 

“As part of our long-term ambitions and strategy, we are eager to provide a safe, secure and entertaining gambling experience for Dutch customers.”

Kindred has received an approval from Kansspelautoriteit to offer commercial online gambling and betting under the Dutch Remote Gambling Act. The licence grants Kindred Group permission to operate in the Dutch market with immediate effect.  

“We are fully committed to establish Kindred’s role as a responsible, trustworthy and valuable gambling operator on the Dutch market through our flagship brand Unibet,” added Anne-Jaap Snijders, Chief Commercial Officer, Kindred Group. 

“Our corporate purpose to `transform gambling by being a trusted source of entertainment that contributes positively to society’ sits at the heart of our `Unibet Impact’ programme which is solely dedicated to foster a safer and more responsible online gambling industry. 

“We want to convey entertainment to the Dutch society and are very keen on bringing the joy and excitement of sports to everyone.”

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Previously announced in July, Kindred entered into an agreement to acquire the remaining 66.6 per cent of outstanding shares in Relax, accelerating the former’s strategy to “increase its focus on product and customer experience” by strengthening its product control and differentiation capabilities.

At the time of entering the initial agreement, Henrik Tjärnström, CEO at Kindred Group, stated: “Through this acquisition we add a rapidly growing and profitable B2B business with a world-class product portfolio, giving us greater control over our casino, poker and bingo offering, putting Kindred in a significantly better position to achieve our long-term strategy to increase our focus on product differentiation and customer experience.”

The transaction values Relax Gaming at €320m on a cash and debt free basis, along with a total value of the outstanding shares of approximately €295m.

The initial consideration for the remaining outstanding shares of approximately €80m has been settled in cash. Moreover, the maximum earn-out payments amount to €113m and become payable in 2022 and 2023, subject to Relax Gaming achieving certain earnings thresholds. 

Kindred has been invested in Relax Gaming since 2013, three years after the igaming supplier was founded, and was the largest owner, prior to the transaction, with 33.4 per cent of the outstanding shares. 

Furthermore, the acquisition is expected to generate annual run-rate synergies of €8m within the next three years for the operator, pinpointing low investment needs and reduced cost of sales as a key driver. 

“Joining Kindred Group comes as a natural next step in our long-standing cooperation with Kindred across all our product verticals,” Patrik Österåker, co-founder and chairman of the board at the Relax Gaming, noted at the time of the initial agreement. “Kindred’s strengthened presence will allow Relax Gaming to further invest in and accelerate the expansion of our B2B offering across the globe. 

“We will continue the Relax Gaming journey as a separate B2B entity with unchanged product portfolio and overall strategy, staying true to our values and respecting the hard-earned trust of our customers. 

“Our continued independence is a key element of the transaction, and I am happy to remain on the board of Relax Gaming.”

Following the deal completion, Kindred stated its intention to keep Relax Gaming as an independent entity within the company to “cement its position” within the igaming sector with a separate management team and board of directors. In addition, Österåker, will remain as the chairman of the board at Relax.

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Publishing its most recent safer gambling update, Kindred reported that its share of gross win revenues from high-risk players increased from 3.9 per cent to 4.3 per cent during its Q2 trading period. 

Yet, the firm highlighted that despite the minor increase, its customer care performance maintained its 76.9 per cent effectiveness of improving safer gambling outcomes following interventions. 

Ahead of publishing Kindred interim results on July 23, group CEO, Henrik Tjärnström, cited continued progress on the firm’s sustainability objective of generating zero per cent of revenues from high-risk customers by 2023.

“During the past quarter we have continued to see a positive and constructive dialogue across the industry in terms of achieving a more sustainable gambling market,” he remarked.

“Ensuring that the discussion continues to take place, and that it is fact-based, is vital if we are to achieve the ambition we have set. Despite our revenue increasing slightly this quarter, which is an expected fluctuation, we remain dedicated and focused on our journey towards zero.”

Providing a breakdown of ‘customer risk levels’, the Stockholm-listed operator revealed that at present 91%per cent of its customer base is composed of ‘recreational/social’ – 71.4 per cent – and ‘low-risk’ – 19.5 per cent – players.

In February this year, Kindred Group started to communicate about its “journey towards zero” by announcing the share of revenue derived from harmful gambling. 

During the first quarter of 2021, Kindred documented a decrease in the share of revenue that the group derives from harmful gambling to 3.9 per cent. 

Further safer gambling metrics saw Kindred report a group-wide one per cent increase in “improvement effect after interventions” by its customer care teams to 76.6 per cent.

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At an implied value of €320m for 100 per cent of the shares – on a cash and debt free basis – the acquisition of Relax accelerates Kindred’s product control and differentiation capabilities.

Henrik Tjärnström, CEO at Kindred Group, commented: “Through this acquisition we add a rapidly growing and profitable B2B business with a world-class product portfolio, giving us greater control over our casino, poker and bingo offering, putting Kindred in a significantly better position to achieve our long-term strategy to increase our focus on product differentiation and customer experience.”

Patrik Österåker, co-founder and chairman of the board at the Relax Gaming, added: “Joining Kindred Group comes as a natural next step in our long-standing cooperation with Kindred across all our product verticals. Kindred’s strengthened presence will allow Relax Gaming to further invest in and accelerate the expansion of our B2B offering across the globe. 

“We will continue the Relax Gaming journey as a separate B2B entity with unchanged product portfolio and overall strategy, staying true to our values and respecting the hard-earned trust of our customers. 

“Our continued independence is a key element of the transaction, and I am happy to remain on the board of Relax Gaming.”

In order to secure continued integrity of Relax Gaming’s B2B customers, Kindred said its intention is to keep Relax Gaming as an independent entity within the Group with a separate board of directors and management team. 

Kindred’s ambition is to continue investing in Relax Gaming to cement its position as a leading B2B igaming supplier by further strengthening Relax Gaming’s product offering and broadening its B2B customer base. 

In conjunction with the completion of the transaction, all existing employee share option programmes in Relax Gaming will be exercised and Relax Gaming’s management, who are committed to the future success of the company, will retain an ownership of seven per cent of total fully diluted shares in the company. Meanwhile Kindred’s ownership stake in Relax Gaming will be 93 per cent after the completion of the transaction and the exercise of the options.

The acquisition is expected to generate annual run-rate synergies of €8m within the next three years for the Group driven especially by lower investment needs and reduced cost of sales.

The total value of the outstanding shares are approximately €295m – equity value. As part of the purchase, Kindred will pay an initial consideration, settled in cash upon completion, of around €80m. 

Alongside the initial consideration, the maximum earn-out payments will amount to €11m and become payable in 2022 and 2023, subject to Relax Gaming achieving certain earning thresholds. The transaction will be financed through Kindred’s existing cash and credit facilities. 

Earlier this month, Kindred extended its partnership with Relax Gaming, which delivered a series of avatars exclusively for customers of the online gambling group.

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Publishing its ‘2020 Sustainability Report’, which outlines progress on core objectives related to social responsibility, safer gambling, customer care and employee wellbeing, Kindred noted that the share of revenue derived from high-risk customers was 3.4 per cent in Q4 2020. 

2020 saw Kindred become the first publicly listed online gambling firm to disclose ‘transparent KPIs’ tracking the percentage of gross-win revenues derived from harmful gambling. 

Transparent KPIs have been added to the Stockholm group’s financial reporting duties, as Kindred marks out its headline objective of achieving ‘zero per cent revenue from harmful gambling by 2023’.

“Getting to zero will not be an easy task, but we are confident we can get there through collaboration with researchers, investing in technology, and working with regulators to secure a robust regulated market,” Henrik Tjärnström, Kindred Group CEO, remarked.

Supporting its long-term sustainability objectives and social responsibility duties, Kindred’s board revised the firm’s ‘purpose statement’ throughout 2020, to ‘transform gambling by being a trusted source of entertainment that contributes positively to society’.

“We rest on our purpose to transform gambling into a more trusted source of entertainment and positive contributor to society,” the firm added. “That includes offering our 30 million customers a superior experience while helping them feel safe and secure.”

Kindred has also enhanced its commitment to utilising tech resources to develop further market-leading safer gambling systems, following on from the success of its proprietary built PS-EDS player intervention and at-risk gambling detection system.

Backing its technology unit, Kindred will continue its multi-million investment in next stage technologies, incorporating ‘behavioural research and predictive artificial intelligence’ to minimise the player risks of its future products and current inventories.   

The report also highlighted its confidence in achieving its objective while Kindred maintains its growth momentum, in which the company achieved a number of business milestones during 2020. 

Maintaining its growth trajectory, during 2020 Kindred surpassed £1.1bn in group gross winnings, recording an average of 46 million customer transactions per day.

Kindred’s revised approach sees the company place sustainability remits across all operating divisions of the company, encompassing tech, marketing, product management, compliance, HR and customer service.

Boardroom-level changes saw Kindred become the first online gambling company to incorporate a ‘Sustainability Council’ placing the firm’s social responsibility mandate alongside corporate governance, risk, compliance and auditing duties.

“It is my firm belief that sustainability needs to be an integrated part of our corporate strategy, governance process and business model,” explained Tjärnström.

“To ensure we move in this direction we have set up a Sustainability Council and a Governance, Risk and Compliance Council. These groups work to establish cross-functional integration across Kindred and ensure we continue to make progress on our sustainability commitments.”

In addition, Kindred brand sponsorships ,which include Swedish Elite Football, Derby County, Club Brugge, Paris Saint Germain, and the European Football for Development, will be focused on solely achieving ‘positive community outcomes’

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In publishing the figures, Kindred becomes the first gambling operator to report its share of revenue from harmful gambling, the Stockholm-listed online gambling group will release its new ‘transparency metric’ as part of its safer gambling mandate, which seeks to achieve ‘zero per cent of revenues from harmful gambling by 2023’.

Backing the directive, Kindred Group, CEO, Henrik Tjärnström, commented: “We constantly strive to become even better at identifying players that exhibit risky gambling behaviour and guide them back to healthier gambling habits.

“We want gambling to be simple and enjoyable for everyone. Reducing harmful gambling in society is a long-term process which requires a fact-based, open, and constructive dialogue, not least with decision-makers. We want to contribute to that.”

Along with the high-risk figure is a further group-wide measurement of ‘safer gambling efficiencies’, highlighting a 75.7 per cent ‘improvement effect’ following customer interventions.

Moving forward, Kindred will incorporate its new transparency metrics as a new segment of its group-wide financial reporting, informing stakeholders of ongoing developments with regards to the firm’s sustainability commitments.

Leading Kindred, Tjärnström stated confidence that the company would achieve its ‘zero per cent’ sustainability target by 2023, as currently 98 per cent of players are recognised as recreational customers across Kindred brands.

Launched amongst the first within the online gambling industry,  Tjärnström underlined the efficiency and sophistication of Kindred’s safer gambling programme with regards to its player tools, targeting precision and effectiveness of early interventions.

Tjärnström underscored that by publishing its new safer gambling figures on company reports, Kindred would improve its open dialogue with key stakeholders on enhancing industry standards and tackling threats.

“The most important thing decision-makers can do right now is to reduce the flight to unlicensed gambling operators, who fail to provide players with any safety measures whatsoever. The so-called channelisation must increase,” Tjärnström added.

“In order to evaluate our own sustainability work and to counteract harmful gambling, we continuously measure how our efforts contribute to healthier gambling together with how much of our revenue that comes from harmful gambling. We want to share these figures to increase the understanding of our long-term sustainability work and contribute to a safer gambling experience. Local market regulation is an important part to achieve this.”

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Publishing its 2020 Interim statement (period ending 30 June), Kindred records group year-to-date revenues of £484m, up 7.5 per cent on corresponding H1 2019’s £450m.

Despite reporting significant impacts across its flagship sportsbook unit, Kindred was able to deliver growth across all core business metrics.

“The decisive actions taken by Kindred to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 disruption contributed to an increase of 70 per cent in EBITDA during the quarter,” said Kindred Group CEO, Henrik Tjärnström.

“The main savings were achieved in marketing, which is logical as most marketing is linked to sports events. Over the coming quarters, we plan to increase our marketing towards normal levels in line with our long-term strategy, but we will manage this process in a cautious way”.

Primarily impacting its sportsbook unit, Kindred sports betting revenues would nosedive to £67m (Q2 2019: £108m) – in which the group undertook instant operational actions to reduce trading costs – lowering marketing expenditure, bonus incentives and staff count.

Whilst group sportsbook revenues staggered as a result of pandemic consequences, Kindred would see a significant 41 per cent increase in Q2 online casino revenues to £150m (Q2 2019: £106m).

In its statement, Kindred underlines that its substantial casino growth was delivered adhering to the firm’s highest principals on customer duty, safer gambling and sustainability.

A breakdown of casino trading figures, underscores the significant take-up in activity recorded across Kindred’s Western Europe business segment which generated £98m of total revenues

“Kindred has worked with its suppliers to ensure a high quality level of service continued to be provided during this high activity period. On top of this, focus has also been placed on providing the customer with new game concepts in order to maintain a unique player experience” Kindred stated in its breakdown of Casino results.

Casino growth saw Kindred declare an underlying EBITDA of £52m (Q1 2019 £31m), resulting in YTD group EBITDA of £94m (H1 2019: £62m).

Closing its 2020 interim statement, Kindred reported Q2 2020 profits after tax of £27m (Q1 2019: 12.5), maintaining YTD group profits at £28m (YTD 2020: £27m).

Kindred management states that it is proceeding with further direct actions to return the group back to normal trading as quickly as possible.

Concluding its statement, Kindred underlined Brexit as a ‘potential future risk’, in which the company issued the following statement to investors

“On 31 January 2020, the UK left the European Union. Kindred continues to review its operations to fully understand and mitigate any risks associated with a ‘no-deal’ Brexit. There is an insignificant impact on its current operational footprint, but Kindred continues to carefully monitor progress of trade deal negotiations between the UK and the EU during 2020.”

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Emphasising a commitment to growth within locally licensed markets earlier this year, the firm stated it continued to adjust in the Scandinavian nation.

Q3 revenue for Kindred dipped a slight two per cent to £226m (2018: 230.7m), for the full-year to date this stands at £676.6m, representing a 2.9 per cent increase from £657.5m.

Henrik Tjärnström, CEO of Kindred Group, explained as the the group publishes its latest financial report: “Similar to what we saw in the first half of 2019, re-regulation in Sweden resulted in difficult market conditions in the third quarter. 

“The current terms and conditions make it challenging to attract customers into the system and can lead to worsening channelisation. This, in combination with a lower than usual sportsbook margin in September, resulted in significantly lower gross winnings revenue and a £12.8m decline in EBITDA contribution from Sweden compared to the third quarter in 2018. 

“We also continue to experience headwinds in the Netherlands due to the removal of the iDeal payment solution.”

In August Kindred, through its wholly owned subsidiary Trannel International, were handed a €470,000 fine by the Dutch gaming authority, Kansspelautoriteit for offering online gambling through unibet.eu.

Coming amid a steady stream of penalties handed down by the regulator, it was said that games such as blackjack, roulette and poker could be played on the website, in addition to sports bets also being, offered.

Tjarnström added:“Outside of Sweden and the Netherlands, we continued to see strong growth in several other markets, including the UK and France. Locally licensed revenue growth was particularly strong with 33 per cent growth, or 13 per cent growth excluding Sweden, compared to the same period last year. 

“As expected, this resulted in margin pressure from higher betting duties which increased with 26 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. However, this focus will drive more sustainable future profit growth. Locally licensed markets were 57 per cent of overall gross winnings revenue in the quarter.”

With the number of active customers during the period dropping to 1.38m (2018: 1.53m), profit after tax also declined to £18.1m (2018: £36.9m), and £45.7m (2018: £92.3m) for the January to September period.

EBITDA for the third quarter of the year was £37.2m, a 33.2 per cent drop from £55.7m, and £98.3m for the year-to-date, down from £144.9m.

Tjarnström however remained upbeat on US-based prospects: “During the quarter, we launched the sportsbook product in New Jersey and the Unibet Sportsbook Lounge in Pennsylvania, with the online products to go live in November. 

“This will be a great opportunity to deliver revenue growth and eventually profit in the longer term. Our investments in the USA in the third quarter incurred an EBITDA loss of £1.8m.”

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