Kindred to Battle High-Risk Gambling with Transparency Metrics

Kindred, an online gambling group, will promote safe gambling by publishing a transparency metric.

Kindred Group Has Set a Course Towards 0% Revenue from Harmful Gambling

Kindred Group, an online gambling operator that consists of 9 brands, will be the first to publish a report on its revenue generated from high-risk gamblers. It is part of the company’s plan to reduce its income from harmful gambling to 0%. Kindred’s goal is to achieve that by 2023. The company will incorporate the ‘transparency metrics’ as part of its financial reporting. It will share information on its developments with its stakeholders. Each quarter the company will reveal harmful gambling figures and publish them on the company’s website.  

Kindred shared in an update for the stakeholders that in the last quarter of 2020, the record showed that high-risk players contributed to 4.3% of the gross winnings. This data is included in the “safe gambling efficiency” measurement, which reports a 75.7% improvement in customer interventions.

Kindred’s Goal Is to Make Gambling Enjoyable and Reduce Risky Behavior

Kindred created a safer gambling program several years ago. Its goal is to identify high-risk gambling behavior early and promote healthier gambling and assist players that could exhibit signs of risky behavior, establish communication with players, and intervene if necessary. Having a high standard and tight measures for safer gambling didn’t stop the company from reporting an all-time high revenue from the third quarter last year.

Kindred Group CEO Henrik Tjärnström believes in the company’s goals of 0% high-risk gambling by 2023. Currently, the group’s audience is estimated to consist of 98% recreational players. Tjärnström stated that the company aims to identify the high-risk players and help them establish healthier gambling habits.

He also said that the company’s idea is to make gambling entertaining for players. Reducing high-risk gambling will be a long process. It requires open dialogue based on facts. He continued that decision-makers can increase ‘channelization’: the degree to which consumers gamble with licensed operators.

Players who gamble with unlicensed operators are at risk because they are not provided with any safety measures. Tjärnström added the company has to measure its efforts towards creating a healthy gambling environment.

Kindred wants to share how much revenue is generated from high-risk gamblers and create a sustainable long-term safer gambling environment. The regulated local market is a vital part of achieving that goal. Last year the company criticized the Swedish government for extending the online gambling restrictions until June 2021, stating that only offshore sites would benefit from such action, and it doesn’t protect players.

How Does Kindred’s Platform Work?

Kindred keeps informing customers about the different control tools and actively promotes responsible playing by reminding them to maintain healthy gambling behavior. Any unusual player behavior gets flagged on Kindred’s PS-EDS (Player Safety Early Detection System).

The customer gets platform tools that can activate a time or budget limit. If that doesn’t help change the behavior, the player could be contacted via phone, email, or text message. Kindred has made around 55,000 care calls in 2020 to provide players with information on responsible gambling and how they can use the platform’s restriction tools.