Kindred Group (formerly Unibet) has advised the industry that it intends phasing out the online brand of Stan James in the near future.
The online sports book division of the UK bookie Stan James was acquired by the Kindred Group in 2015 for an amount of £19 million.
Hendrik Tjarnstrom, the Chief Executive of Kindred Group Plc, revealed that it will be shutting down Stan James online and will be channeling all its activity in the UK market through its Unibet brand.
Tjarnstrom went on to say that customers on the Stan James online platform will be migrated to the Unibet sports betting platform in the coming months.
Last month Kindred also announced that Unibet would be taking over from Stan James as the title sponsor of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The sponsorship of seven races will be taken over by Unibet which include the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton, the Greatwood Hurdle, the Morgiana Hurdle, the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, the International at Cheltenham (December), the Christmas Hurdle as well as the Haydock Park Champion Hurdle Trial.
Unibet will also sponsor the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown in 2018 while 32Red Plc will continue to sponsor the King George V1 Chase at Kempton.
According to Henrik Tjarnstrom, Kindred is among the biggest supporters of races in the online gambling sector in the UK and Ireland in terms of number of races and prize-money.
Ed Nicholson, Head of Racing Communications and Sponsorship for Kindred Group, commented that given the group’s long term growth plan, it was important that Unibet and 32Red remain visible on the racecourse when customers, as well as potential new customers, were also highly engaged with the sport.
