Earlier this week, online gambling operator Kindred Group announced that it would be halting its pursuit for a license to operate in the regulated Spanish online gambling market. The company had already set in motion the process of obtaining a gambling license through the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), the Spanish gambling regulator, in December 2018. However, they were faced with a strict deadline to adjust their online gambling platform to be in tune with the Spanish market’s compliance requirements. Therefore, in the event of failing to fully comply with the required adjustments, the online gambling company has withdrawn its license application with immediate effect.
Now that it is no longer pursuing the Spanish online gaming license, the online gambling company has instead opted to focus its short-term resources on the United States and Swedish markets. However, this does not mean that Kindred has completely abandoned the Spanish gaming market. In fact, even though it does not currently have any gaming activities in the country, Kindred still maintains a technology hub in Madrid. Furthermore, the officials have also not completely overruled the possibility of the company resubmitting the application for a Spanish license sometime in the future.
“Kindred remains fully committed to the group’s strategic objective of increasing its revenue from locally licensed markets and look forward to revisiting its Spanish license application once the process opens again,” reads a statement from the company’s officials.
Kindred still believes that the country is of strategic importance for its global operations thanks to the aforementioned tech hub. The company chose to establish the bub in the country following a thorough study of ‘the potential to find great talent across locations in Europe and Southeast Asia.’
What Next?
As mentioned earlier, Kindred now plans to shift its focus to other global markets with Sweden and the United States being the most notable ones. In the US, the online gambling company recently debuted Unibet, its flagship iGaming brand in the New Jersey market. This was through a partnership deal it had inked with Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic Casino. It was able to go live in the state after obtaining a Casino Service Enterprise License. Now, the next state that Kindred has its sights set on is Pennsylvania where it has partnered Mohegan Sun Pocono.
In Sweden, Kindred was among the very first operators to apply for the country’s online gambling licenses. It was also among the first companies to enter the local gaming space.
