Two weeks ago, Kindred hosted the Sustainable Gambling Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The aim with the Sustainable Gambling Conference is to connect people from across the industry to discuss how we can secure a sustainable gambling industry long term and this year we gathered close to 200 attendees both from inside the industry but also many representatives from sportsclubs, mediahouses, and other partners.
The Sustainable Gambling Conference is a key element of Kindred’s sustainability work, as we believe that cooperation across the industry is crucial for a sustainable industry and to prevent problem gambling. No single operator, supplier, regulator, treatment centre, researcher or other expert can tackle these challenges alone. We have to learn from each other and collaborate to find solutions to the challenges we face.
Kindred arranged the first Sustainable Gambling Conference back in 2016 and has since then continued to host the conference as a great platform for the industry to gather industry stakeholders to raise current challenges and explore solutions, with the purpose to build a long-term sustainable gambling industry.
The theme for the 2019 edition was “Building relevance” - narrowing in at how the industry can build more relevance in society. Speakers presented on and discussed how the online gambling industry can improve their relevance and add value in the wider community as well as in harm minimization through sustainable partnerships, communications and marketing. The purpose was to open a discussion on how the industry can meet the public perception and build more trust and relevance through communication, advertisement, collaborations and much more.
A broad range of speakers
On the day, we saw speakers from a diverse range of backgrounds, such as Professor Mark Griffiths delivering a key note on Gambling and Advertising, regulators from across Europe joining in a panel discussion to talk about future expectations towards the industry, Derby County Community Trust presenting insights into their innovative Team Talk programme, the CEO from European Football Development Network (EFDN) presenting how EFDN work with football clubs to do good in local communities, and many more. Kindred CEO Henrik Tjärnström opened the day with a QA session with moderator Heidi Frederikke, where he gave his view on the current public perception towards the industry and why it is so important for the industry to step up and build relevance in community.
In the afternoon, Niels Erik Folmann CEO of Danske Spil, Kim Olesen, General Manager of Denmark and Italy for Kindred Group and Sarah Holloway met in a panel discussion, commenting on the rather negative public perception of the online gambling industry, and what the industry must do to improve their relevance and trust.
The day was summarised in a discussion between people who work with gambling addiction as well as former gambling addicts to get an open and honest feedback from other stakeholders on what it takes to build a responsible, sustainable industry.
What’s next
Some of the key takeaways from the day includes a clear advice to understand and accept the impact the industry has on society and work on these in a transparent and open manner. Kindred will continue to work on our responsibility and to be more transparent and open about how we operate and the impact we have. This year’s conference once again evidenced the importance of gathering stakeholders across the stakeholder to highlight challenges we face and possible solutions, and Kindred will continue to take a leadership position on these important areas.
If you missed this year’s conference, you can see recordings from the day on the conference website.
We hope to see you at the next edition of the Sustainable Gambling Conference!
