The consultation period to respond to the Swedish Ministry of Finance's proposal for further marketing restrictions of gambling products has now expired. The proposal, should it come to pass, will severely limit responsible and licensed operators’ ability to market our products to Swedish customers.
Due to the proposal’s substantial negative side effects, Kindred and the gambling industry is highly critical of the proposal. Not only would it hurt the licensed operators, but it will also afflict severe income losses for sports interests through lost sponsorship opportunities, and loss of add revenues for the media industry. If the marketing of licensed operators’ products is severely restricted, it will also make it harder to compete with unlicensed operators. Something that will affect channelization, adding to an already negative channelisation trend in the Swedish market.
Fortunately, the gambling industry has strong allies, which includes the media and sports industries. Partners that we already closely cooperate with regarding responsible gambling. Instead of hanging a curtain in front of the problem and heavily restricting marketing, we want to address problem gambling through industry cooperation. This can be done by using our advanced digital skills, tools and general market understanding. The solution spells cooperation, mutual understanding and respect. Something that all concerned parties should adhere to.
Self-regulation, industry cooperation and the use of modern digital tools to address problem gambling is also something that Kindred has been fully committed to for a long time now. It is also something we will further expand on given the opportunity.
We hope the Swedish government carefully listens to the broad and substantial critique of the proposal from a broad range of stakeholders. And that the government decide to pursuit cooperation with licensed operators to address a difficult challenge, instead of working against it.
