Kindred to shelve Stan James brand

Kindred Group has revealed plans to shut down its Stan James brand and promote Unibet as its leading sportsbook brand in the UK.

Stan James customers will be migrated to the Unibet site in the coming months, with Stan James sponsorships also switched over early next year.

Kindred’s group head of communications told EGR: “Over the coming months we will migrate Stan James customers to the Unibet brand platform, giving them access to a first-class betting platform and product range along with exciting new innovations and a great customer experience.

“It makes sense from a marketing and commercial prospective to align the brand sponsorship [to Unibet] throughout this period, which begins in November and ends in March.”

Kindred Group CEO Henrik Tjärnström told the Racing Post this week that top horseracing events sponsored by the company, including the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, will be run under the Unibet banner, rather than Stan James in order to increase Unibet brand exposure.

“The brutal facts were saying that from a global perspective, we were large in the small markets but relatively small in the really large markets, like the UK,” Tjärnström said.

The news comes after Stan James Online earlier this year took a major step towards integrating onto the Kindred Group platform with the launch of the brand owner’s Relax Gaming-powered bingo product.

Kindred Group (formerly Unibet Group) acquired Gibraltar-based Stan James Online in 2015 for £19m.