Over the last 20 years, Kindred Group has brought together 9 of Europe’s most successful online gambling brands – forming one of the largest online gambling companies in the world.
We offer 30 million customers a great form of digital entertainment, fine-tuned to present an unforgettable experience in a safe and fair environment every day. And while our best years are still ahead, it’s important to remember how far we’ve come.
Our Past
In 1997, from his London flat, our founder Anders Ström set out to change the way players gamble and offer them an experience suited to the modern digital world. This desire led to the launch of Unibet, a business that would tap into the sudden explosion of sport on satellite TV in the late 1990’s, and quickly gain a loyal customer base.
As a seasoned betting expert, Anders had a unique understanding of the average player’s betting needs. And by 2001, Unibet was now offering online services to 200,000 customers in 12 languages across 80 countries. The small and highly talented team behind him helped drive the transformation of an entire industry, and our heritage as a pioneer of online gambling in Europe continues to shape the way we operate today.
In 2004, Unibet listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, signalling a new era that would help take our business to the next level. And with further expansion by acquiring the Belgian Casino operator Mr Bookmaker, we were now in a place to get ahead of the online gambling industry and succeed where others couldn’t.
Our Present
Two years before Apple launched the first iPhone, Unibet had become one of the first operators to go truly mobile – an innovation that disrupted the entire gambling industry. This brought customers closer to live action and gave them the ability to place bets whenever they saw an opportunity. It was this understanding of what customers wanted that came to define Unibet forever as ‘By players, for players.
2007 saw more strong acquisitions for Unibet, with Maria Bingo and Casino helping to further grow our product in Europe and strengthen our position in the Nordics. With additional acquisitions in Denmark and Australia, as well as further expansion into the Finnish and UK markets – over the following years Unibet was fast becoming a group.
With the continued growth of mobile and the increased product offering we had gained, our tech team now had the challenge of handling customer transactions from numerous devices, in multiple jurisdictions, across all our brands. This saw the beginning of our unrivalled tech architecture – a development that enabled us to scale up fast with zero disruption to our customers. Even to this day, our world-class tech platform is extendable, resilient and the envy of our competitors.
In 2016, with a truly multi-brand strategy and 9 consumer brands in our portfolio, we rebranded and Kindred Group was born. This paved the way for expansion into new and exciting markets, such as the US.
And as a leading online gambling operator, we acknowledge our position and take compliance seriously. We believe in exceeding regulatory standards wherever possible and setting the benchmark for player safety practices – as this is the only way to ensure sustainable growth over time. We’re proud of who we are, where we come from, and what we do.
Our Future
With so many proud achievements to look back on, our future goal is simple – to be the number one operator across all our markets. And to get there, we will continue to transform gambling by investing in new technology, exciting products, and above all else, our people.
Without the diversity in our worldwide team, we would not have got to where we are today. Over 1,600 employees, representing more than 62 nationalities work together to deliver the best & safest possible gambling experience for our customers every day – with major hubs in London, Malta, Stockholm and Gibraltar, as well as country teams based in Antwerp, Milan, Madrid, Paris, Copenhagen, New York and Sydney. One global team, united by five shared values, all having a part to play across each of our unique brands.
As the online gambling industry changes, we constantly keep up with new market dynamics and regulations – ensuring a sustainable and profitable business today, tomorrow and beyond. As we look forward, our heritage of ‘offering players a better & safer way to gamble’ remains crucial. Innovation in technology, marketing and data offers huge opportunities to get even closer to our customers, providing world-class digital entertainment.
