Joint 5: Kindred Group (2016)
Unibet (now Kindred) is often overlooked when conversation turns to the industry’s heavyweights but is an operator which continues to enjoy double-digit growth, even if this growth goes somewhat under the radar. Revenues for 2015 amounted to £354m, a 13% hike, while a mix of organic growth and bolt-on acquisitions saw revenues for the first six months of the year fall just shy of £250m.
Last year’s acquisitions were the primarily UK-facing sportsbook Stan James and the broadly Nordics-focused egaming aggregator iGaming Group, which together delivered roughly £15m in revenues in Q2 2016. The Stan James acquisition has given Unibet a foot in the door of the UK and comes after some mixed attempts to establish the Unibet brand in the same market.
There had been some internal debate over whether Unibet would keep the Stan James brand alive, however, the recent announcement of a three-year sponsorship deal for the Irish Gold Cup, although not in the UK, appears to have put that matter to bed.
Furthermore, this coming December the firm will vote on whether or not to change the company name to Kindred Group, in order to, as the firm puts it, better reflect the company’s multi-brand approach, which also consists of brands including iGame and MariaCasino.
This move suggests there could be more acquisitions to come in the near future. CEO Henrik Tjärnström recently told EGR its M&A strategy was “going to plan” and following the interims told analysts the strategy was to build scale quickly in regulated markets – only 35% of revenues are derived from licensed markets.
This number will be boosted by the launch of a regulated market in the Netherlands, which EGR estimates to contribute around 10% of total Unibet revenues, and a liberalised Swedish market. However, these may not come without some initial pain, with the former set to introduce a 29% revenue levy while Sweden is hardly known for being the land of low taxes.
Regulation concerns aside, the firm has a product range in fi ne fettle with all verticals posting H1 growth, with recent improvements to poker and bingo justifying the decision to wipe the slate clean and develop new products as part of a close partnership with Relax Gaming.