After more than 12 year in the Kindred Group, Andreas Reimblad announced that he would be stepping down as Director of Sportsbook.
Reimblad assumed his current role in February 2021 and oversees the Kindred sportsbook.
In June 2012, he joined the company as Development Manager of Sportsbooks. Reimblad has also served in various other positions, including head of product management and sportsbook operations and sportsbook development.
Reimblad spent a brief time as a product manager at IGT for bingo and betting. He also spent over two-and-ahalf years at Unitbet in various bingo positions, which included six months as the head of bingo.
Reimblad announced in a LinkedIn post that he would be departing Kindred soon for an exciting new opportunity. I’ve lived and worked in Malta, Sweden and the UK. “I’ve been to so many places around the world, and met so many great and talented people. They have also become my lifelong friends.”
I am incredibly proud of having been a part of and leading such an incredible team over the past couple of years. We did what many people thought was impossible – we developed a sportsbook platform that is proprietary. We also grew our sportsbook team from a handful of talented people to more than 100.
While I will not see the complete rollout, KSP’s production launch earlier in this year was an exciting moment.
Kindred Set for a Transformational Year
Reimblad’s departure comes at the end of a year that Kindred describes as “transformational”.
As part of its strategic review, Kindred made an announcement at the end last year that it would completely exit North America before the end Q2 of 2024. The company is cutting 300 positions across its business.
Nils Anden, who had previously served as interim CEO of the company, was named permanent CEO by February. Anden was appointed CEO when Henrik Tjarnstrom left the position in May last year.
Furthermore, the future for Kindred could look very different after French lottery and gaming giant La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) submit an offer worth SEK27.96bn (PS2.10bn/EUR2.47bn/$2.68bn) to acquire all outstanding share capital of Kindred.
FDJ stated that this deal will create Europe’s second-largest operator. The combined company is billed as “Europe’s gaming champion”, with higher revenue and earnings.
FDJ published the document in February, which is the offer to the public for this acquisition. The acceptance period will last until 19 November.
Kindred shareholders have unanimously recommended accepting the offer.
The proposal was announced in Q1, when Kindred posted a net profit increase of 22.7% to PS31.4m, aided by initiatives for cost-reduction in several business areas. The revenue in Q1 increased, but only slightly, to PS307.7m, which is 0.4% more than the previous year.
Fines for Historic Sweden reduced
In terms of other Kindred developments, last week the group confirmed that an historic fine for Spooniker in Sweden was reduced for a 2nd time.
Kindred and Spooniker will now be fined SEK30m. Spelinspektionen, the Swedish regulator for gambling and gaming companies, first assessed a penalty to Kindred in March 2020. The fine was set at SEK100m for offering bonuses without licence and running lotteries.
Kindred responded by filing an appeal at the Administrative Court of Linkoping. In July 2021, the court reduced the fine by half, to SEK50m.
Now, the same Administrative Court of Appeal at Jonkoping has ruled to further reduce the fees.
