Despite being a major focus for the company, Kindred doesn’t expect to break even in the United States until 2026. The projection was made by Kindred chief executive, Henrik Tjärnström, during an earnings call following the group’s Q3 results.
In the United States, Kindred is currently active in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia, Arizona, and Iowa – although it will be withdrawing from the latter soon. The loss of Iowa will, however, be offset by Kindred’s upcoming debut in Washington state – where the company is partnering with the Swinomish Tribe to open a new Unibet sportsbook in 2023.
Gross winnings revenue for the North American market amounted to £7.8M GBP (approx. $9M USD) during Q3 2022, down 3% compared to the same period in 2021, but up 8% on Q2 2022.
Regarding Kindred’s US ambitions, Tjärnström said: “We are now live in seven states, we’re going to reduce that to six after Iowa, and we’re going to increase it to seven again with Washington at the beginning of next year, so we have been on an investment position across our state footprint. That is what we’ve been saying all along that it will take some time, a few years to get to profitability in the US.
“We’re expecting the contribution for 2022 to be negative from a further investment compared to 2021, but then, from 2023 onwards, we will see a gradual improvement. As we said at the CMD, we will be on positive contribution or breakeven, in 2026, across our current state footprint.”
Overall, Kindred has said it wants to be a top ten operator in the most important states within the next five years. The group is also operating north of the border, in the Canadian province of Ontario.