Secretly recorded conversations involving current and former executives of Evolution AB, a Stockholm-based online gambling company, suggest that the company's casino games were accessible in countries such as Iran, Sudan, China, and Syria, which are subject to US sanctions or have online gambling prohibitions. These recordings, captured by the private intelligence firm Black Cube between 2021 and 2024, were submitted as part of a defamation lawsuit filed by Evolution against a law firm. In these recordings, Evolution's former US commercial director, Jeff Millar, expressed shock at the company's games being available in sanctioned markets and claimed that CEO Martin Carlesund was regularly briefed on the size of these "unregulated" markets but withheld this information from investors. Another executive, Kfir Kugler, Evolution's commercial director for Africa and Latin America, allegedly showed a Black Cube agent a spreadsheet detailing revenues from countries including Sudan, dating back to 2016.
Evolution has consistently denied wrongdoing, attributing access from these countries to cybercriminal activity, stream hijacking, or misuse by aggregators. The company maintains it is a business-to-business (B2B) supplier and that licensed operators are responsible for player compliance. However, Black Cube's report, initially commissioned by an anonymous rival company (later revealed to be Playtech), alleged that Evolution knowingly allowed its games in prohibited jurisdictions, failed to enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, collected revenue from banned territories, and committed licensing breaches in countries like Italy, Spain, and Sweden. Despite these allegations, a February 2024 investigation by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) found no evidence that Evolution "sanctioned, promoted, permitted, or otherwise materially benefited" from operators offering its games in prohibited jurisdictions, though it noted Evolution voluntarily implemented compliance enhancements.
Over half of Evolution's revenue, specifically 56% in the latest filing (down from 61% in 2024), reportedly comes from "unregulated" markets, significantly higher than rival Playtech's 15% from similar markets. Jeff Millar indicated that Evolution used aggregators to sell games in countries like China, South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, all of which prohibit online casinos. The resurfacing of these allegations, particularly after the Bloomberg report, led to a drop of nearly 10% in Evolution's stock price on August 13, 2025. This follows an earlier loss of $3 billion in market value (or 36% of its stock value, totaling $10 billion at an earlier point) after the initial 2021 complaint. The company also recently agreed to pay £4.75 million ($6.4 million) to the UK Gambling Commission for supplying unlicensed operators in the UK, resolving a December 2024 review.
