Henrik Tjärnström: Kindred’s US investments paying off in Q1 2021

Kindred CEO Henrik Tjärnström. Image source: Kindred Group

Online gambling and sports betting provider Kindred Group has published its Q1 interim report for the trading period January to March 2021, citing strong growth in its US business.

Gross winnings revenue for the US market amounted to $10.3m during the quarter, an increase of 203% year-on-year, while player acquisition levels continued robustly with focused marketing and bonus campaigns surrounding the Super Bowl and March Madness

Paired with increased efforts on retention, this aided growth in active customer levels by 92% versus the first quarter of 2020 the company reported.

Looking at the group as a whole, gross winnings revenue amounted to $489.8m compared with $346.9m year-on-year, an increase of 41%. Underlying EBITDA was $136.1m versus $59m in Q1 2020.

Updating investors, the firm said that the result for the quarter was impacted by foreign currency losses on operating items of $11.1m which are primarily unrealized losses as they relate to the retranslation of foreign currency current assets and liabilities.

“As the group has significant cash balances in foreign currencies, and foreign currency rate movements were substantial, the impact was unusually large during the quarter,” it noted.

CEO Henrik Tjärnström, commenting on the firm’s stateside activities, said: “In the US, our long-term investments are continuing to pay off, with gross winnings revenue increasing 185% compared to the same period last year. The second quarter of 2021 has started off well with the average daily gross winnings revenue for the first 25 days in April being 52% higher than the full second quarter of 2020.”

He added: “Our selective organic growth strategy is also moving forward as planned, with launch into our fourth state, Virginia, planned for 28 April 2021. on the interim report for the first quarter 2021.”

The cost of cracking the American gaming market was also highlighted in the report. It noted: “The US continues to be an investment market for the group. The high marketing investment levels, in line with the group’s internal growth strategy, contributed to a negative underlying EBITDA of £6.3m( $8.75m) for the quarter.”