Henrik Tjärnström

Kindred Group is confident that the company will be able to navigate any upcoming UK regulatory changes brought into action by the government’s gambling white paper.

Speaking to investors during an earnings call following the group’s Q1 financial results, CEO Henrik Tjärnström stated that the UK white paper presents “an opportunity” to gain market share from operators above and below them in the country.

Thanks to past experience when it comes to regulatory adjustments across Europe, Tjärnström is confident that Kindred can make progress from its “middle” market share position despite the potential impact the white paper could have.

The CEO commented: “We have an opportunity to actually gain market share both from above, from larger operators, and because further regulatory changes in the UK will most likely mean that customers will spread their spending across more operators.

“We see that could be a potentially good opportunity for us to both take market share, continue to take market share from above, but also from below as smaller operators will struggle to comply with the complex regulatory situation.

“I think we have a really good position in that sense. We also have a very profitable position already at these kinds of market shares that we sit on, around three to four per cent market share. We expect that to be a good thing.”

Tjärnström also believes Kindred is well-positioned for any changes due to improvements made to its responsible gambling standards over the past couple of years.

This includes reducing the amount of revenue share from harmful gambling, which the group reported stood at 3.0 per cent at the end of Q1 (Q4: 3.3 per cent) due to “improvements focused on enhancing the customer’s responsible gambling journey”.

As a result, Tjärnström added that Kindred is “broadly compliant” with what is expected to be within the white paper when it is published.