Kindred Group has announced two enhancements of its sports betting product, leveraging Kambi Group’s sports betting services whilst working to boost the scope of its own Kindred Racing Platform (KRP). 

The three-year deal between the Stockholm Nasdaq-listed gambling groups will see Kindred utilise Kambi’s B2B sports betting platform until the end of 2026 as it looks to roll out its long-term strategy, whilst the latter company has stated that there will be a minimum revenue contribution from its partner of €55 million across the term. 

Kindred has underscored an end goal of securing greater end-to-end control of its product offering and strengthening customer experience, aiming to develop KRP into a complete in-house sportsbook platform in pursuit of this objective.

The group’s plans for development of its sportsbook platform will see a joint approach combining in-house and third party products with added joint objectives of ‘ensure a first-class end-to-end customer experience’ and lowering its supplier risk exposure.

Henrik Tjärnström, Kindred Group CEO, remarked: “As we increase our footprint across Europe, North America and Australia, and expand our revenue from locally regulated markets, we are taking a close look at how our product suite is set up.

“Our award-winning Kindred Racing Platform, developed over the past eight years, is consistently performing above expectations, and has seen significant above market growth since it was launched. 

“We are excited to have taken this step and to develop it into a full Sportsbook, while also securing a continued collaboration with our long-term and valued partner Kambi for the coming five years.”

Moving forward, Kindred intends to build its current position in the sports betting sector – with 40% of its gross winnings revenue from this space generated by proprietary products and in-house trading – and double its current headcount in this division from its standing of 200 employees. 

Tjärnström concluded:“The experienced team behind the Kindred Racing Platform, who built it with sports betting in mind from the start, are well into the process of expanding the platform into an in-house controlled Sportsbook platform. 

“Following the Relax Gaming acquisition in 2021 this is the next step in our long-term strategy of securing greater product control.”

The partnership between B2C firm Kindred and B2B provider Kambi is long-running, beginning in 2014 when the latter ceased to function as Kindred’s sportsbook arm and began operating independently, with the platform supply arrangement between the two extended in 2018. 

Under the terms of this spin-off agreement, Kindred was issued with a €7.5m convertible bond in Kambi – having now satisfied the required criteria, the supplier now has the option to prepay the full loan amount and exit the bond agreement at any time of its own discretion, granting the firm greater influence over its operations for both itself and its shareholders. 

Following the latest contract renewal, Kindred has detailed that Kambi’s technology and services are an ‘integral part of its sports betting offering, and that it will continue to cooperate with the firm throughout the newly arranged term and after. 

Kambi’s wider ambitions have seen the look increasingly to the US as well as seeking to maintain its position in Europe, with group CEO and Co-Founder Kristian Nylén, CEO and Co-Founder of Kambi Group, describing the launch of the New York betting market early last month as a ‘significant milestone’ for its transatlantic B2B operations.

Commenting on the extension of his firm’s deal with Kindred, Nylén remarked: “Kambi and Kindred continue to enjoy a fantastic relationship and I’m delighted this agreement sees both parties to commit until 2026. 

“Kambi prides itself on being the key enabler for visionary operators in regulated markets across the world, and we look forward to supporting Kindred with our modularised sportsbook technology and services over the next five years.”