Kindred Group to leave North America and Norway

This week Kindred Group announced that they will leave the North American market after a strategic review of the business. If all goes according to plan then the company will have completely withdrawn from the market starting from Q2 2024.

Additionally Kindred Group will also leave the Norwegian online gambling market. Due to these two steps the company expects to reduce their workforce with a total of 300 employees.

Cost reductions

Starting from next year Kindred Group will focus on reducing its costs. Part of this is closing markets which aren’t profitable enough. By withdrawing from the North American market the company expects to save around $50 million a year. Last year Kindred Group made a $18 million loss on their North American activities.

“The cost reduction actions announced today are both necessary and decisive. While it is never a desire to inform valued colleagues of redundancies, this puts us in a stronger position to secure long-term growth for Kindred across our locally regulated core markets. We can now focus our resources and tech capacity towards strategic initiatives and selected markets where we see clear potential to grow our market share.” according to Nils Andén, Interim CEO of Kindred Group

Kindred Group is now present in various states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Arizona, and Washington State. The company also operates in Ontario (Canada). In North America Kindred Group runs two iGaming brands including Unibet and 32Red.

Norway exit

Alongside the note that Kindred Group will leave the North American market it announced it is also withdrawing from the Norwegian market. After a long and hard battle with the Norwegian regulator Lotteritilsynet the company has decided to take their losses. The court ruled in June 2023 that the regulator was in the right to order a cease and de-sits order on all operation by Trannel, a subsidiary of Kinder Group.

The money that Kindred will save with their exit in North America will be used for several goals. This includes extra investments in brand exposure for hyper local casino brands in selected markets. On top of this the company want to invest more money in strategic projects and exclusive content.

For the future Kindred Group sees Europe and Australia as their key operating areas.