Kindred decided in 2021 to commit to the ambition that zero per cent of our revenue should derive from high-risk players who show signs of harmful gambling. We also started publicly reporting the share of revenue derived from harmful gambling every quarter. Our progress have not been on par with the intent and anticipated development, but the ambition stands firm. We remain fully committed to our Journey towards Zero.
Since 2021, there have been fluctuations in data during different quarters. During the holiday season (Q4), revenue from higher-risk customers usually increases, but in Q4 2022, this number decreased from 3.8 per cent to 3.3 per cent. This was due to an improved approach towards the younger demographic, reducing harmful gambling and improving existing interventions, resulting in fewer false customer detections.
During the fourth quarter, Esther Scheepers was appointed the new Head of Responsible Gambling, taking over from Maris Catania, who now acts as Advisor on Responsible Gambling at Kindred. Esther has extensive experience in responsible gambling and behavioural monitoring and has been with Kindred for more than ten years. Esther’s primarily focus will be accelerating the delivery of Kindred’s Journey towards Zero.
“Throughout my ten-year professional experience at Kindred, I have been involved in responsible gambling. I am passionately committed towards the provision of a safe and sustainable gambling environment and working within this field gives me a great sense of personal fulfilment”, Esther said when asked about her new role.
Esther has been closely involved in the ongoing changes within the industry, and she has gained a good understanding of the rapidly increasing regulatory requirements and how Kindred remains a leader in safer gambling vision and strategy, adopting a harm minimisation framework that protects customers as well as the business from gambling-related risk.
On explaining the Journey towards Zero so far, Esther said, “During my time as PS-EDS manager (Player Safety – Early Detection System) before my current role as Head of Responsible Gambling, I have worked closely with Maris Catania to optimise our operational teams, and how we work. In addition, we have worked a lot with the different country teams, with the different departments whose work influences the customer journey and with our RG teams to make sure that we invest in the better reduction of harmful gambling revenue through our interventions.
We have also focused on the younger generation since research shows that these have a higher risk of developing a problem, and thus we wanted to do more intrusive interventions to help minimise harm.”
As a step forward to reach the ambition of zero per cent revenue from harmful gambling Kindred has formed the Journey Towards Zero Panel to support the important work around responsible gambling further. Esther Scheepers explains the pilot project, which is driven by Kindred’s team in the United Kingdom: “The panel, which will consist of representatives from expert organisations from across the gambling community and lived experience, will serve as a platform for discussions and recommendations on how to improve progress on our Journey towards Zero. In addition, they will give us expert advice and guidance.
The panel will host several focus groups and workshops with panellists to hear their views on how best to reach Kindred’s ambition – as well as assess the PS-EDS system to understand areas for improvement and further collaboration.“
