The online gambling company Kindred Group revealed a decision to pull its 32Red brand from the Italian market after operating for about 8 years in the country. As confirmed in a statement published by the company, the Italy-facing website of the brand – 32Red.it – is set to cease operation as of November 30th.
The gambling firm calls for local customers to make sure they withdraw their funds by November 29th as after that they will no longer be able to access the website. The message found by the Italian customers of British online gambling brand also encouraged users to transfer their loyalty to the flagship brand of the Kindred Group – Unibet – and its Italian-licensed website.
Kindred Group’s statement reads that the decision was not an easy one for the company but the reasons for it still remain unknown, with no further details regarding the factors that led to it. The gambling group is expected to provide more information about the move at the time it issues its earnings report for the third fiscal quarter later this week.
The message made it clear that Kindred Group aims to focus on promoting its Unibet.it brand in the Italian market. The Group promised all 32Red players a warm welcome in case they transition to the Italy-facing website of Unibet.
The presence of the British online gambling brand 32Red in the Italian regulated gambling sector dates back to 2012. Five years later, in 2017, Kindred took over its operations.
Kindred Group Encourages Italian Customers to Transition to Its Unibet Brand
The withdrawal of 32Red from the country comes to prove that the hospitality of the Italian online gambling market has declined over the last few years, especially after the competent authorities in the country suspended almost all forms of gambling advertising and gambling sponsorship activities in 2019. Apart from that, the Italian Government has also unveiled a new “temporary” tax on sports betting turnover aimed at providing some extra funding to coronavirus pandemic migration efforts.
Recently, a second coronavirus pandemic lockdown has been imposed on the land-based gambling market of Italy. Gambling companies that already have an online presence are hoping that local customers decide to make a more significant transition to online gambling services than the one they did during the first Covid-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020.
This time, the lockdown will be tougher, as the authorities required not only casinos, betting shops, slots and bingo halls to cease operations, but also bars- and tobacconists-based electronic gaming machines and betting points are set to be subject to closures.
Kindred Group has not been the only gambling company that is trying to consolidate its presence in a smaller number of brands. In October, the online gambling company Betsson revealed its decision to withdraw eight of its brands from the UK gambling sector in order to become more focused on the UK presence and growth strategy of a single brand.
- Author
Olivia Cole
