Kindred boss: Covid-19 impact will be temporary

Henrik Tjärnström is confident the online gambling sector will return to growth.

Sweden.- The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the gaming industry will be temporary according to Henrik Tjärnström, the CEO of the Swedish online gaming operator Kindred Group.

“Sports activity will gradually resume after the summer,” he said.

In the meantime, the company is mitigating the impact of reduced sports revenue by adapting its cost base through limiting marketing spend, lowering operating costs and delaying some investments.

“While the current situation presents several challenges, I remain very positive about Kindred’s future outlook. Kindred will continue to benefit from a wide geographical reach and a broad product mix as well as a business model which has been resilient during previous times of economic downturn.

“I also believe that the social and behavioural changes that are already happening will accelerate the migration from offline to online which will benefit digital operators like Kindred.”

The group reported a good start to the year with gross winning revenue for the first quarter in the range of £247-252million, compared with £224.4million.

The full impact of cancelled sports events was largely effective from March 16, resulting in lower sports book turnover, but compensated in part by growth in revenues from other products.