Evolution UK operations won’t change following Gambling Commission settlement

Following a Gambling Commission investigation stretching back to December 2024, Evolution was this week ordered to pay £4.75 million ($6.4 million) after the regulator found the supplier giant’s content available via two operators on six unlicensed websites.

When asked about Evolution’s regulatory settlement, following the release of its Q2 earnings on Friday, CEO Martin Carlesund said the agreement wouldn’t affect the company’s UK operations going forward.

“I mean, we settled with them [UKGC],” Carlesund declared on the post-Q2 earnings call. “There are no changes in our way of doing things in the UK for a while, and we have no changes coming up.”

Carlesund also used the opportunity to argue against hiking gambling taxes across Europe, with the UK’s Remote Gaming Duty nearly doubling on 1 April this year from 21% to 40%.

“When it comes to the balance of the regulatory situation in any jurisdiction, not in particular to the UK, but as soon as you raise the tax to a certain limit, you will lose channelisation,” he continued.

“You have seen that in many [regions] such as the UK and the Netherlands, [where] the channelisation reached 50%. And that is not good.

“So, we need to hope for a better balance in what regulators do. But it’s not for us to decide, and we just act on the rules that are there, and we’re very respectful to those rules, and we understand why they do them, and of course, raising the taxes is negative for the channelisation.”

Revenue down despite Europe resurgence

Carlesund described Europe as the suppliers’ “main headache right now” following several consecutive quarters of revenue declines.

However, the region returned to quarter-on-quarter growth for Evolution in Q2, with revenue edging up by 3.5% from Q1.

LatAm, meanwhile, remained Evolution’s standout performer in terms of regions with 26.3% year-on-year growth, while North American revenue also grew 9.5% from the same period of last year.

Despite these gains, however, challenges in Asia relating to increased cybercrime activity led to a quarter-on-quarter revenue decline of 3.7%.

Ultimately, Evolution’s net revenue declined 1.2% to €517.8 million during the period, while EBITDA also slipped to €341 million from the €345.3 million generated in Q2 2025.

Across H1, net revenue dropped 1.4% to €1.038 billion while EBITDA fell from €687.2 million to €676.3 million.

Despite the revenue and EBITDA declines, Carlesund maintained he was “happy with the performance” in Q2.

“Revenue and margin are moving in the right direction compared to the first quarter, cost control remains strong, cash flow is improving and we continue to expand in key markets while executing on our product roadmap,” Carlesund said in comments from the interim report.

“The road is almost never straight, but what matters is that we are moving forward. Some curves are harder than others, but they can also be fun. And the same goes for Evolution.”

Galaxy Gaming acquisition looks set to fall through

In July 2024, Evolution announced a deal to acquire all outstanding shares of the specialist table games and casino technology provider Galaxy Gaming.

But the closing period for the deal, valued at approximately $85 million, expires on Friday, meaning from that day on, either party can terminate the deal. The deal has faced various regulatory challenges in the US

Carlesund emphasised the deal was not critical to Evolution’s business, stating: “Two years have passed, and Evolution has spent significant time, effort and resources handling the rather large amount of administration required to close this acquisition.

“Galaxy is a great company; however, due to its size, the transaction is not significant for Evolution. The outcome has no material impact on our existing business, our US operations, or our long-term ambitions.”

Evolution’s Q2 presentation revealed that 16% of its net revenue came from customers’ players’ IP addresses in North America, behind both Asia (37%) and Europe (33%).