EGR Power 50 2019: Kindred Group (05)
05. Kindred Group (05)
Henrik Tjärnström new CEO of Unibet Group plc
FINANCIALS: Last year’s double-digit growth is a distant memory as H1 EBITDA dropped 32%, although £450.6m revenue is still way ahead of much of the competition
STRATEGY & IMPACT: Firm was one of the first to operate a multi-brand, multi-country strategy in Europe. Focus is now on the US and stabilising its core Nordics-facing business
GEOGRAPHIC REACH: Is a leading player in the Nordic region, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, while it has also begun to dip its toes in the US sports betting market
INFLUENCE & LEADERSHIP: Kindred is one of the most influential operators in Sweden behind former monopoly operators and is a strong voice in the online safer gambling debate
It’s been an uncharacteristically tough year for Kindred Group, but the operator remains in the top five after making that milestone for the first time in the 2018 Power 50 rankings.
Kindred has doubled in size since 2015, reporting double-digit revenues on a consistent quarterly basis, but the 2019 re-regulation of Sweden’s online gambling market has hit the Stockholm-listed giant harder than many of its competitors. An 8% increase in revenue kicked off a downward trend for Kindred Group in Q1, and performance went from bad to worse with 3% revenue growth in Q2 before a 2% revenue decrease in Q3. First half performance saw a 32% drop in H1 EBITDA to £61.1m, down from £89.2m last year, with a tough comparative period from the 2018 World Cup to blame alongside Sweden’s channelisation issues.
CEO Henrik Tjärnström has called for the regulator to introduce B2B licences in Sweden to arrest the slump, but the potential for stricter regulations in Sweden and the UK could spell more bad news for the operator heading into Q4 and early 2020.
Kindred, however, is still a leading force in the Nordics and in many other European markets like Belgium and France. And fi nancial performance aside, it leads the way from a company culture perspective in the global betting and gaming industry. The firm’s Wimbledon HQ was ranked inside the 30 best places to work in the UK this year, while its Urban Escape office in central Stockholm won the award for Sweden’s best-looking office in November.
This year saw Kindred shut down its Maria Casino brand in the UK to focus on 32Red, similar to closing Stan James in favour of Unibet last year. Unibet, the operator’s flagship sports betting brand and leading name in US sports betting, also underwent a brand overhaul including a new logo.
The operator’s management team remains stable at the top with Tjärnström leading by example, as Neil Banbury handles operations in the UK and Manuel Stan in the US. All eyes will now be on these execs as to whether they can turn around Kindred’s recent slump as it prepares for the regulation of the Dutch market in the next couple of years and looks to expand even further in the US.