Kindred Cuts 75 Jobs, Adapts to New Market Realities

Adapting to new market realities, Kindred Group is shedding 75 jobs across its offices in Europe. Outgoing employees will receive the support they need and deserve, the Group said.

Kindred Group Announces 75 Job Redundancies in Europe

Malta-headquarter provider of iGaming solutions, Kindred Group, will lay off as many as 75 employees around the world, in a move designed to optimize its company’s operations and cut costs across the world. Kindred Group presently operates offices in Malta, Gibraltar, London and Stockholm with around 300-400 employees in each office, but the Group’s footprint is much broader.

The move has nothing to do with the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown that has forced the casino industry around the world to shut down. In Latvia, and possibly Sweden, the lockdown has extended to online gaming. The group is further preparing to get ahead of events, a company spokesperson confirmed.

The company’s central office in Malta will also be affected, Kindred Group confirmed. According to the release, the move will only affect a small group of employees involved with the Tigne Point office. The official release stated:

“This action follows previous communication regarding the group’s financial performance during 2019 and subsequent action to increase efficiency and reduce operational costs across the business. The decision is not related to the current COVID-19 situation.”

The number or nationality of employees in each location has not been disclosed, but Malta’s office is expected to suffer the least. Discussing these developments, Kindred Group explained that it was focused on making its business operations “leaner and stronger” to better optimize its long-term goals and generate sustainable revenue from the company’s targeted markets.

Kindred to Support Workers with What They Need and Deserve

Kindred did acknowledge that to many this would be a difficult time, and the Group would seek to assist individuals in line with the values and culture of the company. The decision was also commented on by Kindred Group CEO Henrik Tjärnström who stressed the team spirit and the close-knit community at the workplace and noting that it further made the decision “very tough” and “painful” to carry out.

However, Tjärnström explained that the group needs to adapt to “new market realities,” and that – again – any employee made redundant will receive the full support they need and deserve.

Meanwhile in Sweden, the government may consider tougher stance on online gambling, similar to Latvia, and suspend all operations to prevent an increase in gambling addiction if Swedes need to comply with stricter lockdown rules that limit free movement.

This is one of the most significant job cuts occasioned by redundancies recently. In march, NetEnt, one of the largest developers of iGaming products, announced that 120 full-time jobs in Stockholm and Malta had been made redundant, following the merger with Red Tiger.

Kindred Group remains one of the firmly embedded leaders in the iGaming market. Through Unibet, one of the brands it owns, the Group is expanding its presence in the United States where the company is hoping to break ground into a far more liberal market despite the specific challenges of addressing state regulations.