Off the Charts, Kindred Smashing It, Posts Record H1

Online gambling heavy hitters Kindred Group has smashed it out of the park during its first financial half this year by posting a record gross gambling revenue (GGR) of £716.3 million (US$987.9m/€837.9m), a year-on-year increase touching 50 per cent.

 

While casino and games showed a healthy growth of just over 33 per cent to  £351.3 million (US$484.5m/€410.9m), the biggest boost to GGR came from revived sports betting, up 74 per cent to £330.2 million (US$455.4m/€386.2m), for the Nasdaq Stockholm-listed major.

The betting handle for the group, built on nine major brands, among them Unibet, Maria Casino and 32Red, was an impressive £3.3 billion (US$4.55bn/€3.86bn).

Biggest revenue growth was in western Europe, growing 68 per cent to  £485.9 million (US$670.2m/€568.4m) – stirring stuff for a company founded out of a London bedsit in 1997 by Anders Ström.

Simultaneously in H1 Scandinavian revenue grew 20 per cent to £143.2 million (US$197.5m/€167.5m), remaining Europe was up a tad over eight per cent to £57.3 million (US$79m/€67m), while other revenue measured £29.9 million (US$41.2m/€35m).

The Malta headquartered operator registered almost two million active customers, a surge of 45 per cent over HI 2020.

“I’m pleased to see yet another great quarter for Kindred with continued growth across both the sports and casino product segments,” said Kindred Chief Executive Henrik Tjärnström.

Most significantly, against the revenue growth, Kindred was also able to drive down its costs by 12 per cent to a very respectable £113.7 million (US$156.8m/€133m).

Operating profit in H1 was £189.4 million (US$261.2m/€221.5m) – more than triple last year’s first half.

Kindred paid £28.1 million (US$38.75m/€32.9m) in tax for a final profit of £159.7 million in H1 (US$220.3m/€186.8m), almost the same amount as for the whole of 2020 and the highest like-for-like profit in the firm’s quarter-century history.

Looking to Q3 and the drive to maintain performance, Tjärnström stressed Kindred was now looking to improve its [relative under-] performance in the US market.

“Competition [there] remains strong and we are taking short-term actions to strengthen our position. This includes an update to our creative platform and marketing mix, and improving our campaign tracking capabilities, ahead of the start of the NFL season,” said the Kindred boss.

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