The Momentum of the Kindred Group Today

One of the largest online gambling companies in the world, Kindred Group has brought together Europe’s 11 best online gambling brands over the last twenty years. The group is a member of the European Gaming and Betting Association and the Remote Gambling Association and is Certified to be compliant with eCOGRA’s standards, From a startup idea to a successful business earning over 751.4 million GBP, the success story of Kindred Group is truly fascinating.

Creation of Unibet

The founder of the company, Anders Ström initiated a revolution to change the face of traditional gambling with the digital revolution. He went out of his way to change the face of gambling from his flat in Lindon in 1997. His passion led to the development of an online gambling business known as Unibet Casino which offered several online casino games over the internet such as sports betting, poker, Blackjack and more. Unibet was formed with a single ambition of offering more informed bets to other players which enhances the passion of the game. It is a part of the Kindred Group and is currently recognised for its excellent range of products, services, and approach towards Responsible gambling.

Event Timeline of Kindred Group and how it formed from Unibet Group

In 1998, Unibet (later, Kindred Group) was guaranteed their first license in the UK to conduct a betting business over the phone. As words about this new company started to traverse within the gambling community, Unibet quickly launched their maiden website in English and Swedish and went digital. In 2000, Pontus Leese was appointed as the CEO and the Unibet Group Plc was founded. In the same year, Unibet acquired its first international license from Malta. In the following year, the company quickly expanded its website to over 50 countries and included support for over 12 languages. After expanding to over 80 countries, the company reached its milestone of procuring 200,000 registered customers.

More or less, the company managed to stick to its core values and principles of seeking innovation and building on trust to deliver on their promises to their customers. Within a span of five years, Unibet managed to gain such an exponential growth by attracting the best talents in the industry and allowing them to recognise that they are part of a winning team. Kindred Group would not have been what it is today if Unibet did not lay a foundation over it. By striving for growth both professionally and personally, the Unibet team managed to build a sense of trust and integrity within the industry, regulators and its customers.

In 2004, the Unibet Group Plc was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Stockholm). Within such a short span of time, the group has reached over 100 countries and managed to acquire around 300,000 registered customers. After the internet revolution during the early 2000s, the company launched its own mobile platform and Petter Nylander was appointed as the new CEO. To strengthen its position in the Nordic Bingo business, the company acquired Maria Bingo in 2007. With the advancement of HD video streaming technologies, the group added Live casino games such as Live Blackjack in 2009 to its product portfolio lineup. Following it, iPhone and WAP applications were launched. Henrik Tjärnström was elected as the CEO in 2010 and the following year, the group managed to secure its first external customer in Paf with the help of Kambi (the B2B odds provider of Unibet). In 2012, the Unibet group acquired Betchoice in Australia. Kambi later spun off in 2014 and was listed on Nasdaq Stockholm First North. In December 2014, the brand acquired Bingo.com to cater to the demands of the Nordics. Bohemia Casino became one of the brands of the group allowing them to offer slot games in Slovakian and Czech. Being one of the leading online casinos in the Central European market, it helped the Unibet group to gain a loyal following. In 2015, the Unibet group made one of its biggest purchases by acquiring StanJames.com.

In 2016, the Kindred Group was born from the Unibet group and started shifting its focus towards a true multi-brand strategy with 13 consumer brands. The same year, the Kindred Group won a number of prestigious awards due to its exceptional services and products lineup such as Best Marketing Campaign and Operator of the Year, Socially Responsible Operator at the 2016 EGR Operator Awards. The group reached 1 million active users by the end of the year. In 2017, Kindred Group acquired 32Red (a British online casino licensed in Gibraltar). By that year, the Kindred Grou launched its new online casino brand for Swedish and Norwegian high rollers. In 2018, the company launched its second Romanian in-house brand namely Vlad Cazino. Fast forward to 2019, Kindred Group managed to secure a Swedish casino license allowing it to venture into the Swedish gambling market legally.

Currently, Kindred Group has over 25.6 million customers and handles over 22 million transactions every day. What started as a small business idea in 1997 as Unibet became one of the most renowned and prestigious gambling companies in the world. The journey wasn’t an easy one but it goes on to show that no dream is too small if you have the will and determination to make it real. The future goal of the company is to become the number one operator across all global markets and invest in new products, technologies and of course, people.