Kindred’s quarterly revenue from harmful gambling goes down
Gambling operator Kindred recently published its latest quarterly report in which the recorded revenue from harmful gambling was lower than the preceding quarter, boosting the operator’s “Journey to Zero” initiative in which Kindred intends to generate 0 percent revenue from harmful gambling. In addition to that, the operator also announced the creation of a new panel in the United Kingdom with an intention to further boost the operator’s “Journey to Zero” initiative.
Kindred has announced a drop in revenues in problem gambling, proving its commitment to player protection. ©John Schnobrich/Unsplash
The “Journey to Zero” initiative came into the picture in 2018 when Kindred set a target to bring revenue from problematic gambling down to zero by the end of 2023. However, the target is yet to be achieved and might require a larger time frame to bring harmful gambling revenue down to zero. In its latest quarterly report, which showcases performance, statistics, and revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022, the revenue from harmful gambling was 3.3 percent.
Revenue from the same source had spiked up to 3.8% in the third quarter of 2022. Before that spike, the figure has been constant at 3.3 percent since the first quarter of 2022. Overall, these statistics are better than in 2021, when 4% of the total revenue of Q4 2021 came in via harmful gambling.
Kindred has new management for problem gambling
A little over a month ago, Kindred announced the departure of Maris Catania from the company. Catania was the head of Responsible Gaming and Research at Kindred. She earned this designation in 2019, a year after the operator announced the aforementioned initiative. Catania made a significant contribution to the initiative before stepping down and leaving Kindred after being with them for 13 years.
After Catania’s departure, Kindred’s former gaming manager for player safety, Estjer Scheepers, was announced as the head of Responsible Gaming and Research at Kindred. Catania is still on Kindred’s Responsible Gambling Advisory panel, while Scheepers has extensive experience in the field and has been with the operator for over ten years.
Apart from the decrease in harmful gambling revenue caused by the operator’s new and improved approach for the young vulnerable audiences, a large number of problematic gamblers showed signs of improvement. Gambling Regulators around the world encourage operators to intervene if harmful gambling traits are detected.
To act on that and also on its own initiative, Kindred has detected plenty of gamblers with problematic gambling traits on its platforms and intervened accordingly. In 2022, quarterly, more than 80% of the detected gamblers have shown improved traits after the operator’s intervention. In the fourth quarter, 82.1 percent of the detected gamblers with harmful gambling traits showed improved gambling behavior post-intervention by the responsible gambling team of Kindred.
Henrik Tjarnstrom, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kindred Group, was pleased to see the problematic gambling revenue return to its constant 3.3% mark in the fourth quarter after a spike in Q3.
“I’m glad to see that the share of revenue from harmful gambling is once again on a downward trajectory. However, as we review the trend over these past two years, it is clear that there is still significant fluctuation and that the curve has not been as steadily declining as we hoped. While we have put in a lot of hard work, we have not seen the development needed to deliver on our 2023 ambition. Despite this we remain firmly committed to our Journey towards Zero and to do the heavy lifting needed to reach this ambition. We have known from the beginning that we would not solve this overnight and continue to acknowledge the complexity of the task. That being said, we are very happy that we set an ambitious goal, as it has served as a catalyst for our development and prompted us to pick up the pace.”
The UK Panel to Boost Journey to Zero
The Journey to Zero initiative is in the high-priority category at Kindred. The mission is to bring harmful gambling revenue down to zero by the end of 2023. However, the operator is still roping in a little over three percent per quarter from the same source. As a result, new measures are being thought of and implemented to cut the problematic gambling revenue down. The latest development comes in the form of a new panel for a project that the operator’s team will lead in the United Kingdom.
The pilot project’s panel comprises multiple entities with gambling expertise who are active in the gambling community. The first members of this panel were BetKnowMore, DealMeOut and EPIC Risk Management. Members from the advisory panel of Kindred are also included on this new panel, including Kindred’s former head of Responsible Gaming and Research – Maris Catania. Apart from keeping Kindred on track with its initiative, the panel will be responsible for conducting several discussions and reeling in suggestions and recommendations for catalysing Kindred’s journey to zero.
According to Kindred, the new UK-team-driven panel will host numerous workshops and organise focus groups in which the panelists will be involved. That initial iteration will be followed by the assessment of the Player Safety – Early Detection System (PS-EDS) to find room for further improvement and new potential collaborations in the future. This is the initial roadmap disclosed by the operator. After the execution and completion of these initial tasks, Kindred will disclose the highlights of it along with the next plans to aid the initiative.
In November 2022, ATG announced that they will start publishing transparent reports this year to fight harmful gambling. Starting this year, ATG’s transparent data is expected to be published biannually. The Swedish horse racing giant partnered with Svenska Spel and Kindred Group. In the same month, Kindred became the first online operator to offer online gambling site blocking to its players in France, using a software called Gamban. Players could block access to over 60,000 gambling websites and apps worldwide. Before all this, Kindred and EPIC Risk Management entered a new collaboration to test the human intervention mechanism.
EPIC Risk Management steps in to lend a hand
EPIC Risk Management are on the new panel as well and their Director of Safer Gambling, Daniel Spencer, spoke about his entity’s collaboration with Kindred and its contribution to the highly-prioritised initiative.
“EPIC have been working with Kindred for some years now and recently extended that partnership to provide expert insight and consultation to help their Journey towards Zero. We want operators to be ambitious in their safer gambling endeavours and encourage collaboration across the industry to achieve this. We are delighted to be able to provide this further consumer insight that ultimately will lead to better player protection.”
