Prominent online casino operator Kindred Group has announced that it has strengthened its efforts to help secure the integrity of sportsbetting in the United Kingdom by joining the Sports Betting Intelligence Forum.
Malta-headquartered Kindred Group was previously known as Unibet Group until a 2016 name-change and is responsible for numerous United Kingdom-facing online casino and sports wagering domains including 32Red.com, Unibet.co.uk and MariaCasino.co.uk. It described the Sports Betting Intelligence Forum via a Tuesday press release (pdf) as an industry organization comprised of ‘representatives from sports governing bodies, betting operators, sport and betting trade associations, law enforcement and gambling regulation’ that actively works to ‘develop Britain’s approach to protecting sports and sportsbetting being corrupted’.
In welcoming Kindred Group as the latest member of the Sports Betting Intelligence Forum, the organization’s Co-Chair, Chris Watts, declared that he is looking forward to the operator ‘becoming an active member’ and helping to make ‘a positive contribution to the delivery of our action plan’.
“The Sports Betting Intelligence Forum supports and coordinates the efforts of its members to developing and delivering Britain’s action plan for enhancing integrity in sport and sportsbetting while keeping pace with increasing complexities and focusing on prevention, disruption and deterrents,” read a statement from Watts, who also works as Integrity Assurance Head for the British Horseracing Authority.
To further advance it efforts at keeping sportsbetting free from corruption, Kindred Group additionally stated that this week has seen it sign a memorandum of understanding with the Rugby Football Union that will see it ‘pro-actively’ and ‘directly’ report ‘suspicious betting patterns’ to the governing body for English rugby union.
Eric Konings, Sports Betting Integrity Officer for Kindred Group, proclaimed that he was ‘glad’ to have inked these agreements as it is in ‘the best interest of all parties involved to keep British sports clean from corruption’.
“Cooperation is key in the battle against betting-related match-fixing and we actively seek engagement with all parties, especially law enforcement, involved to keep sports clean of these criminal influences,” read a statement from Konings.
