Henrik Tjärnström, CEO of Kindred, has said that the business return to the Netherlands is “exceeding expectations”.
He added that the business expects to see a positive contribution from the market soon, despite limited marketing efforts in the country.
Earlier today Kindred reported a 32.2% decline in revenue for the first half of the year, with the business experiencing decreases across all major divisions.
Throughout the report the business excluded revenue from the Netherlands, as it had withdrawn from the country to comply with regulation. It relaunched earlier this month, bringing an end to a nine month-long absence.
Previously, Kindred had said that the withdrawal could affect earnings by up to £144m (€170.1m/$171.1m). Indeed, it affected player numbers significantly, as they fell by 600,000 across all markets in Q2.
When asked about the return to business in the Netherlands, Tjärnström said the re-entry is going well, despite it being in the early stages.
“We expect to be contribution positive within the next few months,” he said. “It will be important to help us achieve the long term ambition of getting back to 20% online EBITDA margin in the next two to three years.
“We’re seeing a very strong intake in activity, despite not having ramped up marketing in full. We’re evaluating as we go along as well on the marketing investments and the return that we’re getting.
“We’ve exceeded our own expectations in the Netherlands so far.”
Elsewhere, in the US, Tjärnström said that development across the country has been steady, with a hope to continue an upward trajectory.
“We’ve been seeing good development across the states,” Tjärnström continued. “In New Jersey, we’re looking forward to launching our own platform there in Q3 and ramping up there, continuing [the] growth trend.”
Tjärnström also praised Kindred’s progress in the sports sector across the US.
“We’re up by 30% in turnover for sport in the US,” he said. “Clearly, sports has outperformed in that sense.”
Tjärnström also addressed the implementation of stricter affordability measures in the UK, which he said had affected its revenues in Q2.
“We’ve adapted more stringent financial measures and reduced backstops on customers as well, Some of the measures will be further implemented in the coming months as well. It’s all in the ambition to reduce spend and also bring forward the checks with the customers.”
“We have to ask for documentation and it’s not the best customer experience.”
