Kindred Group, the online gambling operator, has launched a new bet-overlay live streaming player. They are providing the new streaming option first to Unibet mobile customers on the iOS sports app.
The new Watch&Bet Live Streaming player
They are calling it Watch&Bet. it will allow Unibet users to place their bets while they are still watching the on-site sports streams. In what the team at Kindred are calling a world first, the streams will also be overlayed with a constantly updating live odds panel.
According to the press release on the announcement, the Watch&Bet live streaming player will be available in most of Unibet’s European markets. They are slowly rolling out the feature set and selections for their new service, as of today they are offering the player and the live odds on the two biggest in-play sports, football and tennis.
As I mentioned earlier, this will be a gradual rollout of the service, right now it is only available for Unibet customers using their iOS app. The company has made it clear that they will also be launching the live streaming option for Android and mobile web browsers in the very near future.
Comment from the company
Erik Bäcklund, Chief Product Officer at Kindred Group took some time to explain their decision to add their new Watch&Bet Live Streaming player to Unibet:
“The new streaming player will take the customer experience to a whole new level. Easily explained with three words – Fast, Easy, and Fun. Fast, because it enables our customers to see the action and react to it instantly. Easy, because the design is clever and intuitive. Fun, because this is a whole new way of enjoying the live sports watching and betting experience.
“Through thorough customer feedback capturing and innovative internal workshops, we dreamt up a grand vision of how we can transform the in-play betting experience and with this new Watch&Bet player we are one step closer towards that dream. But we are far from done, this is the foundation, to which numerous building blocks will be added and we are all really excited over the upcoming releases for our sports betting customers.”
The future for Kindred and Unibet
The focus of their new services and the rollout of the live streaming option on the iOS app, clearly shows what direction Kindred believes the sports betting industry is headed. Like most online sports betting and gambling operators, they began as a simple website but now they have over 30 million customers across 9 brands in Europe, US and Australia. They offer odds on everything from esports to virtual sports betting.
Since they are very obviously looking towards the future, they have realised that the next step for online betting operators the mobile and app-based market. According to the release, they have an “app-first mindset”. This will be important is they are to continue growing their customer base. I know I tend to avoid betting sites that do not offer a substantial mobile betting infrastructure. The difference here is that for Kindred, betting in apps is not just a side business, they want it to be their main one.
