Kindred continues US retail foothold with Swinomish Tribe deal in Washington

Kindred Group
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Kindred Group is continuing its investment in the North American sports betting market by partnering with the Swinomish Tribe in Washington State to provide a retail sportsbook.

Under the provision of the deal, Kindred will roll out its Unibet retail sportsbook at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge in Washington State, featuring branded kiosks and over-the-counter sports betting provided in the first phase.

Further developments will see Kindred introduce a Unibet sports betting lounge, which will be implemented later this year. 

This follows on from a six-year agreement Kindred penned with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in October 2022 and marks Unibet’s 13th retail location launch in North America.

The brand has 13 locations across Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Washington, with Kindred noting that it reaffirms its commitment to the North American region.

“We are delighted to launch the first phase of our exciting retail partnership with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community,” explained Manuel Stan, SVP of North America, Kindred Group.

“Work continues at pace to build a fantastic Unibet sportsbook lounge, offering customers to the Swinomish Casino & Lodge a truly immersive sports betting experience.”

Kindred is doubling down on its US operations despite a self-described “disappointing” 2022 that ended in the group withdrawing from the Iowa online sports betting market. 

Earlier this week, Kindred received regulatory approval for its proprietary tech platform in New Jersey as it aimed to catalyze success in the US. Management has previously outlined that it would roll out the platform throughout 2023 before making any further judgments on more state exits. 

CEO Henrik Tjärnström told investors earlier this year: “One of the key aspects of rolling out our own platform across North America is to get an improved customer experience and add more content and more relevance and more speed in our own performance. So we’re expecting to invest in our own platform rollout, hence why we’re reducing investments prior to rolling out the platform.

“We have always been clear that we are looking at things on an ongoing basis. As we said before, we have refocused our investments from across all states in our footprint to more focus on the multiproduct states.”