The below content was previously published on https://betterworldcasinos.com/operators/kindred/ but has been replaced with an updated review on October 27 2023
The company
Founded in 1997 with millions of customers and nine gambling brands, Kindred is one of the largest gambling companies in the world.
Kindred operates in locally regulated markets in Europe, Australia, and North America. Over the past 20 years, Kindred has brought together some of Europe’s most successful online gambling brands and reached an average of 50.5 million transactions daily.
In 2021 Kindred became the first globally online gambling company that did a public disclosure of their share revenue from harmful gambling. Based on this, they have set a clear ambition to earn zero revenue from harmful gambling in 2023.
This article is divided into the three main areas of Kindred’s sustainability commitment:
- Environment
- Social
- Governance
Environment
GHG emissions
In 2021, Kindred purchased electricity generated from renewable sources, equivalent to 61.3% of their overall energy use. They have offset emissions by purchasing renewable electricity certificates for the remaining electricity use,
The emissions reduction strategy was based first on energy efficiency actions and then on switching to renewable power sources where feasible. Energy reductions in 2021, according to Kindred’s reports, were (taking 2020 as the base year):
Energy ratio (kWh per employee): 14% reduction
Energy ratio (kWh per GBP of Gross winnings revenue): 15% reduction
In 2021, the company set a new Science Based Target, or SBT, to reduce its overall emissions by 2027. By the end of 2027, the Kindred group aims to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 90% (using 2019 as the base year), and Scope 3 emissions by 35% in that same year. By 2023, they have committed to procuring 100% of their energy from renewable resources in every area where this is possible.
Kindred has achieved a B score in CDP, which means that the company actively takes coordinated action on climate issues.
Other impacts: Water, waste, and transport
In their 2021 sustainability report, Kindred claims that waste impacts (including electronic waste) are not significant, and waste is mostly generated in offices. All waste is separated for recycling in Kindred’s main hubs.
According to their data, waste-related emissions in 2021 totaled 12.9 tCO2eq, which they have offset along with Scope 1 and 2 emissions. In addition, emissions offset in 2021 (100% of total emissions were offset) included Scope 3 emissions related to not only waste management, but also the purchase and transportation of IT equipment.
Kindred reported that in 2021, 10.4% of their GHG emissions came from business travel. In the past year, they were able to reduce these emissions by 78%, mostly due to the pandemic. Their current hybrid-working model is also contributing to reducing emissions in this category.
Kindred has not reported any actions taken in terms of water use reduction nor any project financing to assess this issue.
Commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Kindred has mapped its operations to the 17 SDGs established by the UN in the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development. The goals that were found to be relevant to Kindred operations were:
- SDG 3 – Good Health and well being: Kindred commits to this SDG by tracking revenue of harmful gambling, taking action toward healthier gambling behaviour, and promoting integrity in sport.
- SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth: They embrace decent work and equal pay for all employees, free of discrimination. Kindred tracks employee sentiment on conditions to measure the well-being of their employees.
- SDG 16 – Peace, justice, and strong intuitions: Kindred aims to eliminate financial and other organized crimes and corruption by running a compliant business and maintaining integrity.
Social
Workplace
Kindred currently employs a total of 2055 people from 67 nationalities.
In 2021, a hybrid-working model was adopted by the company to increase employee satisfaction. According to this report, employees have reported a good balance between productivity and flexibility in their working lives after implementing this model.
Some of the commitments not yet achieved related to Kindred’s workforce are:
- Achieve a 50:50 gender split in senior management
- Embed leadership principles across management groups to expand the availability of females in the leadership programme
- Gather inclusion and equity data for all minority groups to build a 2023 roadmap using this data
Partnerships
Kindred considers SBI (Sports-betting integrity) to be a key sustainability area. Therefore, they work closely with stakeholders to ensure high risk management and integrity levels.
To achieve its sustainability goals, Kindred has developed strong relationships with many sports associations:
- The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) (as a founding member)
- Fair Sport 4 All (as a member and sponsor)
- UK Sports Betting Integrity Forum (as a member)
- Anti-Doping Denmark (co-operation)
Players
Providing safe and fair gambling is one of Kindred’s goals for the 2020s. In February of 2021, Kindred became the first operator to disclose their share of the revenue from high-risk clients and establish a road map to achieve 0 revenue from these customers in 2023.
In 2021, 4% of Kindred’s gross winnings revenue came from harmful gambling, down from 4.3% in 2020.
To contribute to the integrity of the gambling industry, the Kindred group has hosted the Sustainable Gambling Conference since 2016. Here, hundreds of researchers, regulators, operators and other experts get to connect and discuss ideas on how to ensure a sustainable gambling industry. The theme of the 2022 conference is ‘Safer gambling: An honest conversation’.
Governance
Sustainability framework
Kindred’s sustainability framework is based on five priority areas:
- Responsible Gambling: with the ambition of achieving 0% of their revenue from harmful gambling by 2023.
- Maintaining integrity: to avoid all malicious cyber activities on the platform and achieve zero compromised player accounts by 2025.
- Running a compliant business: includes anti-money laundering, and anti-corruption goals and action plans.
- Being Kindred: they aim to become one of the highest-ranked inclusive employers in the world
- Contributing to communities: with the commitment to engage their community and fight climate change, they aim to produce 100% of their energy from renewable sources by 2023.
Sustainability commitments
Kindred supports many international commitments, including:
Environmental commitments:
- UN sustainable goals
- Paris Climate Agreement
- CDP Disclosure Insight Action
- Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
Social/governance commitments:
- European Gaming and Betting Association’s (EGBA) Code of Conduct on Responsible Marketing
- International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA)
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