Kindred doubles down on Derby County RG partnership
Stockholm-listed operator extends Team Talk deal and ignites new Covid-19 gambling research project
Kindred Group has extended its partnership with EFL side Derby County and the Team Talk gambling education and responsible gambling organisation for a further 12 months.
As part of the extension, initially enabled via 32Red’s sponsorship of Derby, a new one-year research project will be conducted in collaboration with the University of Derby.
The project will examine the effectiveness of Team Talk during the current Covid-19 pandemic and will be led by University of Derby academic professor David Best.
Interviews and surveys will be conducted with participants in the Team Talk programme with the research being presented in a report scheduled for publication at the end of 2021.
“The renewed investment means Derby County Community Trust can continue some of the fantastic work and results we saw from the first year of our partnership,” Kindred UK general manager Neil Banbury said.
“To be able to work in partnership with University of Derby to develop a robust research and evaluation project that assesses the impact of the programme on individual and community wellbeing will be very interesting,” Banbury added.
Team Talk is a men’s mental health initiative which aims to get men talking about their state of mind during weekly sessions.
The partnership, which began in April 2019, has seen Kindred establish five new Team Talk hubs in the city.
Kindred’s investment forms part of a wider commitment to become the sponsor of choice for sporting organisations and to reinvent sponsorship fees to the benefit of local communities.
The renewal of the initiative comes amid sustained pressure to impose a blanket ban on gambling sponsorship of UK football clubs, which the EFL has claimed would see many clubs go bankrupt as they struggle to deal with the financial fallout of Covid-19.