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ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Employees at at least one Unibet sportsbook were never informed about the company’s plans to shutter all operations in the U.S. and were shocked to learn the news from a sports bettor customer. Unibet finally confirmed on April 12 that their PA sportsbook will be shuttered on June 21.
Kindred Group PLC, the Stockholm, Sweden-based parent company of Unibet, announced at the beginning of the December that the sportsbook will cease operations in the five U.S. states it operates in by the end of June, 2024, due to insufficient revenues in the American market.
Unibet operates in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Arizona, New Jersey and Indiana.
On April 12 Unibet announced it had effectively shut down in Virginia the day prior.
PA customers have some time to pull their funds or perhaps place a bet or two.
Back in December, at the Unibet sportsbook in Allentown, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles north of Philadelphia, a sports bettor asked a ticket writer about the impending closure and the writer said he knew nothing about it.
The ticket writer then went into the sportsbook back office to ask the sportsbook director about the news and also to grab his phone and Google news search the keyword Unibet for information about the pull-out.
The ticket writer emerged a few minutes later and told the sports bettor that neither the sportsbook director nor the assistant sportsbook director knew anything about the impending closure, and that he was personally “shocked” at the news.
“Nobody in Unibet management told us anything about this, either before the official announcement was made or after it,” the ticket writer said.
“We were all kept in the dark. I’m shocked to hear this. We all are.”
It was not immediately known whether employees at other Unibet locations in the U.S. were similarly left uninformed, but it seems likely, considering how the Allentown employees were not given a heads-up about the upcoming closures.
According to Kindred, Unibet has approximately 300 employees in the U.S.
In addition to shuttering the U.S. Unibet locations, Kindred also announced it will be closing its sportsbook locations in Canada.
It operates in one Canadian province, Ontario.
Unibet’s sportsbooks in Europe will continue to operate, Kindred said.
The news was first announced by SBC Media, the i-Gaming trade publication.
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Chief Correspondent
