Evolution AB
Swedish live-casino supplier; target of the Playtech–Black Cube investigation
| Evolution AB
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Public company (Sweden) |
| Headquarters | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Industry | Online gambling technology; live casino |
Evolution AB is a Swedish live-casino and online gambling-technology supplier, based in Stockholm. It became the target of a covert investigation by the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube, commissioned by its London-listed rival Playtech under chief executive Mor Weizer. The dispute, the fees Black Cube earned, and the later New Jersey litigation are covered on Playtech–Evolution affair.[1][2]
This page is not about Evolution Group, an unrelated UK finance firm.
Company
The Financial Times describes Evolution as a Stockholm-based specialist in online casino games, and one of Europe's largest gambling companies alongside Playtech.[1] Bloomberg calls it a Swedish rival of Playtech.[2] Public detail on founding, listing and group structure is not set out in the Black Cube source files used for this page; those facts belong on a fuller company profile once sourced separately.
Dispute with Playtech and Black Cube
According to the Financial Times, Playtech hired Black Cube in 2021 to investigate whether Evolution was operating in prohibited markets. Evolution dates the hire to December 2020. Operatives approached Evolution executives while posing as gambling-industry investors or prospective operators, and secretly recorded conversations over an investigation the FT said ran from 2021 to 2024.[1][3]
One former Evolution executive, Jeff Millar, said in an affidavit that Black Cube secured a meeting with him by posing as staff of a fake firm, Parvus Capital, which had "a fake website, fake email addresses, and fake identities".[1]
In a deposition filed by Evolution in New Jersey, Black Cube co-founder Avi Yanus said Playtech paid an initial £400,000 for three months' research, then success fees of £150,000 for evidence of alleged wrongdoing, £175,000 when Bloomberg reported a 2021 complaint to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, and £350,000 when that regulator opened its own inquiry. A further £500,000, conditional on Evolution's licence being revoked, was not paid. Evolution's filings put the total paid to Black Cube at more than £1.8 million.[1][3][2]
Shares in Evolution fell about 30 per cent in the week after the November 2021 Bloomberg story on the complaint.[1] When Evolution named Playtech as the client on 21 October 2025, Playtech's shares fell as much as 39 per cent that day, erasing more than £400 million of market value.[2]
Regulators and the New Jersey case
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board closed their investigations in February 2024 without corrective action. The New Jersey regulator said it found no evidence that Evolution had taken illegal bets from New Jersey or other prohibited jurisdictions.[3]
In September 2025 a New Jersey judge said that, "viewed through the lens" of the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the report based on Black Cube's dossier was "objectively baseless".[1] Evolution sued the New Jersey law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky and later added Black Cube as a defendant. In June 2026 the court denied, without prejudice, Evolution's motion to add Playtech as a defendant, pending a hearing under New Jersey's anti-SLAPP law (UPEPA) scheduled for November 2026.[4][5]
Playtech said there had been no ruling that the allegations in the Black Cube report were false, and that it stood by the decision to commission the report. Black Cube said it had "proudly submitted its findings in co-ordination with its client" and that recordings left "no room for doubt". Evolution called the report a "defamatory smear campaign" and said the evidence was selective and misleading.[1][3][2]
Full chronology, fee table and party positions are on Playtech–Evolution affair.
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Euan Healy, Inside Black Cube: how notorious intelligence firm rakes in client fees, Financial Times, 3 November 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Jonas Ekblom, Playtech Sinks as Evolution Says Rival Was Behind Smear Campaign, Bloomberg, 21 October 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Playtech Unmasked as Black Cube Client Behind Defamatory Smear Campaign Targeting Evolution AB, Evolution AB press release (partisan), 21 October 2025.
- ↑ Nosa Omoigui, Court denies Evolution request to add Playtech as lawsuit defendant, EGR Intel, 15 June 2026.
- ↑ NJ court says Evolution cannot add Playtech to defamation lawsuit, SBC Americas, 16 June 2026.