Gambling Commission to review Evolution’s licence over black market activity
Supply giant confirms regulator has launched investigation, which could potentially lead to its licence being revoked, after firm’s games appeared on unlicensed sites in the UK
The Gambling Commission has started a review of Evolution’s licence to operate in Britain after the supplier’s games were found to be accessible on black market sites.
The Stockholm-listed business confirmed in a statement made post-market close on 20 December that the regulator’s review had commenced.
The negative news has sent Evolution’s shares tumbling more than 11% to SEK811, at the time of writing.
The review, which relates to Evolution Malta Holding Limited’s licence, has been sanctioned under section 116 of the Gambling Act 2005, which allows the Gambling Commission to perform reviews.
Evolution Malta Holding Limited has held an online casino supplier licence with the Gambling Commission since 30 October 2015.
The firm added a live casino supplier licence on 25 August 2021. Both licences are active at the time of writing.
The Gambling Commission’s review could lead to Evolution’s licence being revoked or suspended, with a financial penalty also a potential outcome.
However, the probe could also lead to no action or merely some additional conditions applied to Evolution’s licence.
The supplier said it was “cooperating fully” with the Gambling Commission and that it has taken “immediate actions to remedy the situation”.
The business said its content that had been available on UK black market sites had been removed.
Evolution said around 3% of revenue comes from the UK. Q3 revenue amounted to €579m, equating the UK to be worth around €17.4m for the business for the quarter.
The Gambling Commission’s investigation comes after CEO Andrew Rhodes sounded warnings to operators over partnering with suppliers that also provide games and support to unlicensed firms.
Speaking at the regulator’s annual CEO briefing in November, Rhodes said: “I said to you last year that I wanted to encourage you to use your commercial influence with any partner or supplier you have to ensure they were taking all the relevant steps to verify they were not supporting illegal activity facing into Great Britain.
“I’m going to go one step further than that today and strongly suggest you all undertake due diligence to ensure none of your suppliers are directly or indirectly engaged in supporting unlicensed activity in this market.”
Martin Carlesund, Evolution CEO, said: “Evolution embraces the objectives of the review by the Gambling Commission. We are committed to support the licensed UK market as well as preventing unlicensed traffic.
“We are now taking forceful action using all technical tools available to us to ensure that our games only are available in the UK through Gambling Commission-licensed operators.
“We believe that a close collaboration to address our joint concerns will lead to swifter and better results. As always, we remain committed to an open and transparent relationship with our regulators.”
A Gambling Commission spokesperson said: “We have nothing further to add to the Evolution statement.”