Kindred’s Swedish marketing spend climbs 56% year-on-year
Unibet operator among the top three Swedish advertising investors during January and February
Kindred Group was Sweden’s third highest spend advertiser during January and February, according to latest data released by Swedish advertising consultancy Kantar Sifo.
The Stockholm-listed operator, a stalwart of the Swedish advertising top three, spent more than SEK100m (£8.4m) on advertising during the first two months of 2021, up 56% in the same period of 2020.
Swedish supermarket ICA retained its place as Sweden’s top advertiser during the period despite reducing spend by 15.7% year-on-year to SEK119m (£10m), while publisher Aftonbladet stormed into the top three, increasing its own ad spend by 181.3% for the period.
Fellow Swedish-licensed operator ComeOn Group was Sweden’s 10th highest spend advertiser despite a SEK48m (£4m) reduction in spend compared to the same period in 2020.
Former monopoly operators Svenska Spel and ATG came in at 14th and 23rd, spending SEK64m (£5.4m) and SEK47m (£3.9m) respectively during the first two months of the year.
Malta-headquartered operator Hero Gaming increased its year-on-year gambling spend by a whopping 3677% during the first two months, from just SEK1m to more than SEK60m (£5m).
Mr Green, LeoVegas and Betsson Group were absent from the top 30 list, an absence which may be due in part to increased regulation governing deposit limits and repeated bonusing.
In December, the Swedish government’s Gambling Market Inquiry called for a blanket ban on gambling advertising between 6am and 9pm.
The ban, which would cover the marketing of so-called high-risk games – likely to be online casino – would apply to TV, radio, podcasts and video-sharing platforms including YouTube.
In addition, the inquiry called for the existing prohibition of unlicensed gambling sites on Swedish broadcast channels to be extended to foreign-based media service providers and video-sharing sites.