The percentage of revenue Kindred Group generated from players gambling unsustainably increased during the fourth quarter of its 2021 fiscal year, the operator revealed.
While this represented an increase from the 3.3% recorded in Q3, it was down year-on-year. In the fourth quarter of 2020, when Kindred began publishing figures to track revenue generated from harmful gambling as part of its push to reduce this figure to 0%. For that quarter, 4.3% of revenue came from unsustainable play.
Kindred said the quarter-on-quarter rise was due to a number of factors. It explained that there was historically a rise in high-risk play during the holiday season, as it is a sensitive time for some individuals.
Another factor was that Kindred withdrew from the Netherlands as the country’s regulated igaming market opened for business. The operator said this contributed to an increase in the numbers reported, though did not elaborate why.
Kindred also noted that it invested more resources into its responsible gambling initiatives during Q4, saying this highlighted the necessity to focus on earlier interventions that can be automated for the lower risk group of customers.
This appeared to have a positive impact, with the highest sign of improvement in player behaviour following interventions. Figures for Q4 show 79.2% of players that displayed harmful gambling behaviour showed an improvement in their behaviour after intervention, marking a significant increase on the 64.9% reported for Q3.
Kindred said this demonstrated the importance of early engagement in disrupting the development of problem gambling behaviours.
“Despite the share of revenue from harmful gambling increasing this quarter we remain dedicated and focused on our journey towards zero,” Kindred chief executive Henrik Tjärnström said.
“While we are not pleased that the trend remains flat over the last year, we have known from the beginning that we won’t solve this overnight, and we know there is still work to do. We have committed ourselves to this ambition and we will continue to work towards reaching 0% revenue from harmful gambling.”
Tjärnström said Kindred would continue to work to more targeted deliveries during 2022 in order to provide greater advice and guidance to customers.
“While 2021 has been focused on research initiatives and have better data driven understanding of player dynamics, we will in 2022 continue the work to increase our capacity to effectively engage better and faster with detected customers,” Tjärnström said.
“Besides additional self-control tools and optimised customer communication, will we launch automated interventions for lower risk groups.”
