Kindred Group’s revenue from harmful play ticks up in first three months of 2024
High-risk gambling accounted for 3.2% of revenue, while the operator says 87.1% of detected customers showed improved behaviour following interventions
Kindred Group has revealed that 3.2% of gross revenue the pan-European operator generated in Q1 2024 was derived from harmful play.
This was a slight increase on the 3.1% the Unibet and 32Red parent company published for the final three months of 2023.
On a year-on-year basis, revenue from harmful gambling was down slightly, from the 3.3% reported in Q1 2023.
Meanwhile, Kindred said 87.1% of customers detected by internal monitoring systems demonstrated “improved behaviour” after interventions.
This was a small fall on the 87.4% reported for Q4 2023 but was up on the 83% recorded for the first quarter of last year.
The results form part of the so-called ‘journey towards zero’, with the Stockholm-listed operator releasing harmful gambling revenue percentages since February 2021.
The information released so far shows the share of revenue from high-risk customers has hovered between 3% and 4% since Q4 2021, although Kindred has not yet managed to get below 3% in any given quarter.
On the latest data, Alexander Westrell, director of communications at Kindred Group, said: “We continue to see our share of revenue from high-risk players fluctuate quarter to quarter, and we are working closely with all teams across the company to support customers towards a more sustainable gambling experience.
“However, it is encouraging to see that our journey towards zero data has steadily decreased since 2020. A similar trend can be seen across the healthier gambling behaviour effect after interventions.
“This tells us two things: our work is paying off, but we need to continue to push ourselves to propel a sustainable progression.”
Speaking on the sidelines of Kindred’s annual Sustainable Gambling Conference, held in March, CEO Nils Andén admitted to EGR that reaching zero was “mathematically difficult” but that the whole firm was “focused on this ambition”.
The release of revenue derived from harmful gambling comes almost precisely three months after French lottery and gaming heavyweight La Française des Jeux (FDJ) tabled a £2.1bn cash offer for Kindred Group.
The bid, which represented 10.9x Kindred’s underlying EBITDA in 2023, would create the second largest operator in Europe, FDJ said.
In February, FDJ published a public tender offer, with the acceptance period running until 19 November 2024.
Kindred’s board has recommended to its shareholders that they accept the offer.