Profits are up at betting group Kindred with no sign of a let-up in the continuing expansion of the sports betting companies.

Despite France, one of the favorites, winning the tournament, there is more news today that the World Cup has been a good tournament for the online sports betting companies, with Kindred Group reporting a 31% year-on-year increase in the second quarter gross winnings to ￡219m ($288m).

After-tax profits amounted to ￡25.5m ($33.6m) for the quarter, bringing year-to-date profits up to ￡55.4m ($73.1m).

Kindred CEO Henrik Tjarnstrom said: “The World Cup provided a significant all-time high in customer activity, with unexpected results leading to a sportsbook margin of 4.2% after allowing for free bets.”

Throughout the second quarter, Kindred saw 1.5 million active customers across its 11 active brands, with the proportion of bets placed on mobile devices continuing to increase. “Gross winnings revenue from mobile grew by 29%,” commented Tjarnstrom, “and amounted to 72% of our total gross winnings revenue.”

That is clearly good news for Kindred and its shareholders, but does it tell us anything about the broader growth of online sports betting companies?

Figures from Kambi

Perhaps a better guide to that would be the figures just released for the second quarter by Kambi, a company which describes itself as a “leading provider of premium sports betting and technology services”. In simple terms, that means providing the platforms that sports betting companies put in front of their customers, and the growth in their revenues clearly shows that

The company has reported a 25% year-on-year increase in revenues to €17.6m ($20.6m, ￡15.6m) for the second quarter of 2018, with a pre-tax profit of €1.7m ($2m, ￡1.51m) for the quarter.

These revenues were helped by the World Cup, and the company has already secured two deals in the US following the legalization of online sports betting in the country. Outside the US, the company has also launched three new sports betting companies into three regulated territories and continues to expand throughout Europe.

As with Kindred, the numbers and the expansion plans clearly represent good news for Kambi shareholders – more widely, they show that there is no sign of any slowdown in the expansion of sports betting companies.

No sign of a let-up

With the legalization of sports betting in the US, this expansion will, if anything, accelerate. A recent report in the Guardian noted how the stock market values of the leading UK bookmakers rose after legalization in the US, and clearly, the States represents a huge potential market, with early returns from racetracks and sportsbooks more than matching expectations.

Whether you see this as good news or bad news depends very much on your perspective. For gamblers, it is probably good news: more companies mean more competition for customers and therefore better odds and continuing special offers. For governments and US states looking to gambling as a means of raising revenues, it is also good news.

It may be less good news if you would prefer not to see an endless stream of bookmakers’ ads when you are watching live sport. And for legislators looking to clamp down on what they see as a social evil, the continued expansion of the sports betting companies is even less good news. The Hydra continues to grow new heads.