The hallowed observation of reluctant Mafia mobster Michael Corleone in the movie, The Godfather, “just when I thought I was out, you pulled me back in”, came back to rattle scandal-prone B2B games developer and iCasino provider Evolution today when they agreed to pay the UK’s regulatory Gambling Commission (UKGC) a fine of £4.75 million (US$6.35m) to settle a long-running licensing breach.
This is yet another controversy to rock the Stockholm-headquartered iGaming technology company, with a market capitalisation of SEK 139.79 billion (£10.78bn/US$14.44bn), one of the biggest players in world gambling.
Following a lengthy investigation by the UKGC, begun in December 2024, the Sweden-origin company agreed to pay the £4.75 million fine–or “settlement”–in acknowledgment that two operators–hitherto unknown–had been offering Evolution gambling content to British punters across six sites in blatant breach of the Swedish-origin company’s British operating licence.
Founded in 2006, and helmed by CEO Martin Carlesund, B2B Evolution, listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm, has offices and studios around the world, principally in Europe, The Americas and Asia.
Lurid Allegations
And they have been at the centre of a slew of disputes, court cases and lurid allegations for a number of years, among them a long-running, but now settled, labour dispute at its studios in Georgia in the Caucasus, cyberattacks hacking their video distribution in Asia – and, most recently, a highly-charged court case in New Jersey, USA, where Evolution is claiming that arch rivals Playtech have been running a smear campaign against them, in league with ex-Israeli spies, in a bid to destroy their U.S. market position.
In a media statement released today, Evolution conceded that during their probe, “the UKGC found “the [anonymous] operators actively evaded restrictions in place at the time.
“[But] Importantly, during the 18-month review, no broader pattern of unlicensed access to Evolution content in the UK has been identified.
“Evolution has fully cooperated with the Commission consistent with its longstanding approach to regulatory engagement.
“The company routinely takes technical, legal and commercial action to identify, address and prevent unauthorised access to its content.
“The commercial relationships with the two operators whose websites offered Evolution content that may have been accessed by British consumers were terminated immediately upon discovery.
“Evolution continuously strengthens its technical measures and refines its procedures, with the introduction of enhanced ring-fencing measures among the latest developments.
“While no system can entirely eliminate attempts by third parties to circumvent controls, Evolution remains committed to continued investment in industry-leading compliance standards and to working constructively with regulators to address these challenges.”
Do The Right Thing
Asserted Evolution CEO Carlesund: “We always want to do what is right, and it is not acceptable that six unlicensed sites offered Evolution content in the regulated UK market.
“We do not want traffic from unlicensed operators and will always move quickly to address any such situation.
“We welcome the conclusion of the review and remain focused on continuing to supply our world-leading games to licensed operators in the UK.”
Markets remained unmoved, philosophically and literally, by Carlesund’s mea culpa, with the Evolution share price holding steady at SEK695 at time of this writing.
