For the 90-day period between 21 June and 19 September, Kindred said the share of revenue from harmful gambling stood at 3.8%, up from 3.3% in both the first and second quarters, and also higher than 3.3% in Q3 of last year.

Kindred also noted a quarter-on-quarter drop in the percentage of customers that displayed improvement in their play following intervention. This was 82.6% in Q3, down from 84.7% in Q3 and 83.1% in Q1, but a significant improvement on 64.9% in Q3 of 2021.

The operator has set a target of reaching 0% of revenue from harmful gambling by the end of 2023, and while it said this will be “challenging”, it remains fully dedicated to this goal. To support its ongoing efforts, Kindred said it had identified four critical areas to keep working on.

These included shortening the time from detection to intervention, continued investment in and collaboration with researchers to further understand gambling behaviours, ensuring control tools are visible, understood and used in the right way, and Improving transparency and knowledge sharing within the industry, customers, researchers, regulators and partners.

With this in mind, Kindred entered into a new collaboration with EPIC Risk Management to analyse and further improve human intervention mechanisms. Kindred said this link-up would help to ensure that manual interventions are better placed and motivate customers into healthier betting behaviour. 

“We have not seen a desired sequential development this quarter, however we have taken significant steps forward since launching our ambition in 2021,” Kindred chief executive Henrik Tjärnström said.

“We have strengthened internal processes and aligned operations to continue our journey towards zero revenue from harmful gambling. 

Beyond 2023

Tjärnström added that the operator will continue to work even beyond 2023 in order to try to derive no revenue from harmful gambling.

“We will continue to improve our technology and processes so that we increase our efficiency and speed in detecting and engaging with customers at risk.

“We are on a long-term journey and our commitment goes beyond the end of 2023, but collaborations here and now like the one with Epic are crucial for our future progress. They provide unique insights from which we can learn the best approach to manage gambling related harm from an individual perspective.”

Epic’s director of safer gambling Dan Spencer added: “I am delighted to be renewing and extending our partnership with Kindred over the next three years. Kindred were the first operator that we worked with, and they continue to show their commitment towards player protection by placing value in lived experience voices. 

“Kindred have shown great ambition in reducing revenue from high-risk players and this partnership will ensure that Epic remain part of that journey by providing industry leading consultation services.”

Maris Catania, head of responsible gaming and research at Kindred, spoke to iGB about how the initiative has played out last week.