Norway has a strict regime when it comes to gambling and betting. Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto are the only companies allowed to offer gambling services to Norwegian citizens. The country does not accept licenses from other EU countries, such as Malta. Therefore, Norway has taken legal action against MGA-regulated companies. Despite this ban, MGA-regulated Unibet, part of the Kindred Group, operates in Norway and experienced regulatory actions.
Key Data
| Trading name | Unibet |
| Related brands | MariaCasino, 32Red, StoreSpiller Otto Kasino, Vlad Cazino, Bingo CasinoHuone, KolikKopelit |
| Business activities | Sports betting Online casinos Bingo and poker |
| Domains | https://unibet.com https://unibet.nu https://unibet.se https://unitet.nl https://unitet.ro https://unitet.be https://unitet.fr |
| Legal entity | Kindred Group Plc Trannel International Ltd, Malta Spooniker Ltd, Malta |
| Jurisdiction | Malta |
| Authorization | MGA (MGA/B2C/106/2000) for Trannel International SGA for Spooniker |
| Payment processoers | PaymentIQ (Bambora) LuqaPay |
| Related individuals | Henrik Tjärnström (LinkedIn) Patrick Kortman (LinkedIn) |
Short Narrative
Kindred Group (formerly Unibet Group Plc) is an online gambling operator with nine brands, including Unibet, Maria Casino, and 32Red. The company is registered in Malta; its shares are listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (Nasdaq). The group had 33.9 million customers as of December 2022. Kindred Group‘s 2022 revenue declined significantly from GBP 1.26 billion to GBP 1.07 billion. Among other things, management blamed the problems in Belgium and Norway for this.
The MGA-regulated Trannel International Ltd and the SGA-regulated Spooniker Ltd, part of the Kindred Group, are the operators of Unibet. Kindred’s flagship brand. A significant portion of Unibet‘s players come from Norway (see analysis below), so regulatory headwinds are naturally reflected in the bottom line.
Regulatory Headwinds
In September 022, the Norwegian regulator Lotteritilsynet warned Kindred Group it would receive a compulsory fine of up to NOK437 (€42.8) million within a year if it does not cease what it views as illegal online gambling operations in the country. Furthermore, it imposed a fine of NOK1.198 million for every day that the company does not withdraw from Norway.
In December 2022, Kindred Group announced that the Norwegian Gambling Authority had postponed its daily fines as it acknowledges that the company has adapted its operations in Norway. The Norwegian government had clarified that Kindred would be within its rights to accept Norwegian customers passively.
herefore, Kindred will continue to passively accept customers residing in Norway. The NGA does not have jurisdiction over Trannel as the company is domiciled in Malta and duly licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority. Therefore, Kindred is confident that the coercive fine cannot be enforced by the NGA outside of Norway. Subsequently on 9 December 2022, the NGA again suspended the enforcement of the fine whilst Kindred’s appeal against the decision is being considered.
Kindred Group Year End Report
As reported by FinTelegram, Norwegian authorities have taken action against MGA-regulated gambling providers and their payment processors in 2021. Norwegian banks have been instructed to refuse deposits to the payment processors’ accounts.
Money Laundering Issues
In December 2022, Kindred Group‘s wholly owned subsidiary, SGA-regulated Spooniker Ltd, received a warning and a sanction fee of SEK 10.9 (€998,000) million by the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) for not having taken sufficient measures to assess the risk of its services being used for money laundering and terrorist financing. The investigations undertaken by the SGA relate to the period January 2019 to February 2022. This was the biggest fine since the new regulations were introduced in Sweden and Spelinspektionen (SGA).
Spooniker is the operator of Unibet.se, Mariacasino.se, Storspelare.se, Bingo.se, and Igame.se.
Website Analytics
A Similarweb analysis shows that Unibet actually operates passively in Norway. In January 2023, there were still just under 26 million visitors to the two websites Unibet.com and Unibet.nu. Of these, around 3.4 million were from Norway, which is just under 13%. Norwegians were thus the strongest visitor group to these two websites.
In the last 28 days before February 19, 2023, only 9.3 million visitors came to the two websites. Of these, around 2.1 million were from Norway. A decrease in Norwegian visitors around more 39%.
At least the Similarweb analysis shows that the decrease in Unibet website visitors from Norway is significant. This will therefore necessarily be reflected in the balance sheets of Unibet and Kindred Group. One can be curious about the Q1 2023 results.
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If you have any information about Kindred Group, its activities and partners, please let us know through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
