We sat down with Fredrik Kjell, our Chief Product Officer, to find out more about Kindred’s product portfolio in current market conditions. Fredrik expands on the changes we’ve seen in customer behaviour, esports, and looks into the future.
Tell us about how Kindred adapted its product portfolio in the current situation?
We took immediate action following what was happening in the world. Our Sportsbook lobby, for instance, has seen some big changes. We took out certain modules and events that were no longer applicable and made others, such as esports or horseracing more visible. Another example would be us offering a service in poker, so that players can contact us, set up their home games and play with their friends from their homes.
Could you briefly explain more about esports and virtual sports?
Esports is massively popular throughout the world: here you bet on teams that play videogames. Virtual sport is a very high-quality video stream of sporting events taking place, such as football, tennis, basketball, etc. The difference between the two is that virtual sport uses a random number generator (RNG) to produce the outcome. It’s an animated stream but it looks very real.
Is there anything else that’s changed as the availability of sport has declined?
I think that players are finding their way back to poker. They might have been playing poker 10 years ago and have now rediscovered it, so we’re seeing a big increase in this area. We’re also seeing growth in other products: players still want to have entertainment, so they’re trying and experimenting and trying to find new options.
As casino rises in popularity, there are now discussions about the potential increase in problem gambling. What do your trends say?
Obviously, we monitor that incredibly closely. We have very good systems for detection. What we’ve seen when looking at the data from our systems, is that the number of potential problem gamblers has actually gone down. So, I haven’t seen an uptake in problem gambling.
Has there been a shift in customers who’ve been traditionally playing in land-based casinos, moving to online casino?
I think so. In general, what we can see is that table games are increasing in popularity, both live and RNG table games.
Looking into the future, what excites you the most?
It’s a big question, but I would probably say technology. A lot of things are happening now. We work a lot with automation, recommendations and create a very customised experience, but I think technology such as 5G will change how we bet. We would be able to take on a lot more bet offers much faster. So, I would go with technology.