Kindred Group became the first gambling operator to openly report its share of revenue derived from high-risk players who show signs of harmful gambling in February, 2021. Our aim is to measure our progress and benchmark against our ambition to reach zero per cent revenue from harmful gambling, but also increase transparency, facilitate a fact-based discussion and pave the way for the wider industry to follow in our footsteps.
The figures are updated every quarter and reported on, together with a measurement of the effectiveness of Kindred’s sustainability work. We have set up a road map with highlights already achieved, and milestones to reach.
We invited our Head of Responsible Gaming and Research, Maris Catania, to help us break down what the numbers actually means for Kindred and the industry.
Hi Maris, in the report for Q2 we can see that Kindred’s share of revenue from harmful gambling remains at 3.3 per cent but that the improvement effect after interventions has increased to 84.7 per cent. Does this mean that we are safe to say that we are going in the right direction?
I think it is very difficult to just say that we are going in the right direction based on a stable trend as the numbers can still increase due to factors outside our control, but it is reassuring to see that we are not getting a higher percentage of revenue from harmful gambling when compared to previous quarter. Hopefully, we manage to get a significant decrease in Q3.
What can you tell us about the actions taken that lies behind the numbers for Q2?
The main actions that we are taking are to have more localised RG(Responsible Gambling) integration and therefore taking into account the cultural aspects in our strategies, but most importantly, treating customers under 25 with a more rigid RG approach to assist them in a more personalised manner to take on harm minimisation techniques to prevent them from harmful gambling.
In the road map “From here to zero” bullet points on important contributions to ensure a safer gambling environment for Kindred’s customers are listed. Is there anything that you would like to highlight and can you tell us anything about what will come?
We believe that responsible gambling can only occur through collaborations with different stakeholders such as researchers, treatment centres, and experts by experience. We are looking to further continue working with organisations like Gamban and RecoverMe to ensure harm minimisation across gamblers, and not just Kindred customers.
Kindred has entered a new partnership with QuitGamble.com. Could you please elaborate on this?
QuitGamble.com is an online portal that has information that can assist people who are going through a harmful period due to their gambling. This portal has information to help affected others, to avoid relapse and also information on addiction. By promoting these kind of tools, gamblers may find these portals of assistance.
Could you please talk us through what lies ahead? What will come next?
We will continue focusing on research initiatives around product related risk, and work more collaboratively with companies to ensure that gambling related harm can be decreased. Internally, we are looking into how to optimise the PS-EDS interventions to reach even more customers at an even earlier stage.
Exciting times ahead for sure. Maris, is there anything else that you would like to add?
Every initiative presented by us, is the result of work from different stakeholders, and a large number of employees are involved. These initiatives are not something that we are doing alone, but only through communication and transparency. On that topic, I would like to take this opportunity to mention the Sustainability Gambling Conference that Kindred stand as host too. This year the theme will be “Safer gambling: An honest conversation” and it will take place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The conference will be a hybrid event where those who are able to travel can finally meet again in one place. Parts of the conference will also be streamed online in a similar format to the last years. It is open for everyone to participate and the registration has just started.
