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Evolution Gaming Group AB | |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Vasagatan 16, Stockholm, 11120 |
| B2B Customers | 600+ |
| Employees | 16,000+ |
| Nasdaq Stockholm Ticker | EVO |
| Finance | Official Key Financial Data |
Evolution Gaming Group AB (EVO) is a business-to-business (B2B), publicly traded casino supplier headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. It was co-founded in 2006 by
EVO and its subsidiaries operate worldwide, and the company’s stated mission is to be the first Live Casino supplier in newly regulated markets. So far, it has accomplished this in Italy, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, and Romania, along with some jurisdictions in Canada and the USA.
“Evolution AB (publ) (”Evolution”) develops, produces, markets, and licenses fully-integrated B2B Online Casino solutions to gaming operators.”
Excerpt from the official Evolution website
In layman’s terms, EVO accepts payments from casino operators for various products and services, including:
A casino operator can contract EVO and start offering state-of-the-art live dealer games on their platform with just a few clicks without having to bother overseeing any of the complex processes behind it.
Evolution charges commission fees (cca. 10% to cca. 20% of gross winnings) and fixed monthly fees for dedicated tables. Basic agreements normally include access to live streaming tables, while more expensive contracts can include personalized tables and environments, native-speaking dealers, VIP services, and more.
What a fantastic business idea to have in 2006.
In total, Evolution Gaming owns eleven live gaming studios worldwide, including four in the United States, with 2000+ employees. They are running more than 200 gaming tables daily as of 2019.
| Studio opened in | When? |
|---|---|
| Riga, Latvia | 2006-2012 |
| Madrid, Spain | 2013 |
| Żebbuġ, Malta | 2014 |
| Spa, Belgium | 2015 |
| Bucharest, Romania | 2016 |
| New Jersey, USA | 2018 |
| Pennsylvania, USA | 2020 |
| Kaunas, Lithuania | 2020 |
| Michigan, USA | 2021 |
| New Jersey, USA (again) | 2022 |
| Connecticut, USA | 2022 |
In addition, Evolution Gaming opened engineering and production hubs in Estonia, the Netherlands, Belarus, and Georgia.
I find it interesting to see how the strategic placement of their studios tells the story of how Evolution was quick to acquire newly regulated markets and dominate the Live Casino industry in Europe.
From 2018 onwards, they expanded to the American continent to “catch” the newly legalized online gambling business in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut, and Ontario, Canada.
EVO became a public limited company in December 2014 before being listed on Nasdaq First North Premier, Stockholm, on 20 March 2015. The company abides by
Evolution Licensing
The company holds licenses from the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, the Swedish Gambling Authority, several other European countries, five regulated USA states, and five Canadian provinces.
A full list of EVO’s and its subsidiaries' licenses and certifications is available on their official website.
EVO designed more than 30 different, unique gambling experiences by perfecting Live Tables for classic casino games, offering popular local games to a wider audience, and developing concept game shows and hybrid game rooms.
Some interesting facts about Evolution games:
Evolution games across all categories are available on multiple platforms - desktop, tablet, or smartphone, and are fully compatible with iOS and Android devices.
The offering for classic Live Casino games is well-rounded. EVO maintains several 24/7 live-streaming tables for the most popular table games, along with several variations for keeping returning players entertained.
| Casino Game Category | Evolution Gaming Variations |
|---|---|
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Live Roulette |
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Craps |
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Live Blackjack |
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Live Baccarat |
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Live Poker |
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In addition, they run popular, local games tables such as:
Needless to say, their Live Casino tables stream at superb video and audio quality and are presided over by well-trained professionals.
A unique aspect of Evolution’s portfolio comprises a series of live game shows. These bring together the classic Live Casino experience of popular table games, money wheel games, and elements of well-known TV shows and board games.
These games focus on interaction and their immersive qualities to bring a fresh twist on gambling as we know it. Here are some of their most popular titles, with a brief description.
| Extra Chilli Epic Spins | A Megaways slot with Free Spins, Wilds, and multipliers. The game show presenters (sometimes wearing sombreros) can guide players through special features such as Piñatas and Gamble Wheels. |
|---|---|
| Gonzo’s Treasure Map | A number-predicting game where players search for hidden Gold, Multiplier Blocks, and Gonzo’s Keys. Successful hits return your bet with various multipliers. |
| Monopoly Big Baller | Host triggers Free Spins and multipliers on your cards. The game uses Bingo elements and a Bonus Game, where players can use the familiar Monopoly cards to navigate the board and collect multipliers. |
| Crazy Time | Inspired by the Dream Catcher money wheel concept, the show features four bonus games with impressive multipliers and opportunities for lucrative decisions. |
| Deal or No Deal Live | An unlimited number of players can spin an RNG multiplier wheel and decide to increase the amount of money in certain briefcases. The aim is to predict, in the end, whether the amount of money in the briefcases is higher than the Banker’s offer. |
Personal Opinion Warning
These game shows are mesmerizing. The presenters wear these ridiculous thematic outfits, the themes are just so out there, and honestly, the gameplay is quite fun. I find them equally confusing and hilarious.
Studies have shown that online gambling and feelings of isolation boost each other, increasing the risk of disordered gambling. RNG games are inherently lonely since they make us go “against” the computer. There’s no real interaction in them.
But Live Casino games might make for a better gambling experience since they allow a level of social interaction. RNG games, like slots, can put players in a “trance-like state” and allow them to continue gambling while disengaged.
In contrast, having real people to interact with while gambling can help players maintain focus and gamble more mindfully. In fact, I believe that Live Casino games are better than traditional online games from a responsible gambling standpoint.
Since I’m talking about the single largest Live Casino supplier in the world, I feel like a short analysis of the Live Casino market is warranted.
A big downside to online casinos was that many people did not fully understand and trust the Random Number Generators propelling online gambling games. In live dealer casinos, you can take a digital spot at a real table, presided over by a real dealer.
The game is streamed in real-time from a physical studio with high fidelity video camera and microphones. Players get to chat with the dealer and among themselves in a dedicated chat room.
This means that players can place bets from the comfort of their own homes but can trust that the game is not “fixed.” It’s like playing in a land-based casino but remotely.
Freak’s Writing Artistry Moment
The social element of Live Casino games makes for a more authentic casino experience. Online casinos are great for convenience, but they keep us isolated and fail to meet our most intimate expectations about gambling:
Live dealer casino is a unique segment of online gambling due to their hybrid nature. They certainly don’t bring back the full glitz and glamour of The Strip, but they’re a lot closer to it than RNG games ever will be.
Naturally, players are attracted to the idea, even if minimum bets at live dealer tables are typically higher than for similar RNG games.
According to data from H2 Gambling Capital and retrieved from WillowOakFunds.com, the online gambling market is growing at a much faster pace (12% CAGR from 2016 to 2019) than its land-based counterparts (2% CAGR from 2016 to 2019).
Live casino is, surprisingly, one of the fastest-growing segments (32% CAGR from 2016 to 2019), and EVO managed to ride this wave and grow its revenue to 49% from 2016 to 2020.
EVO has approximately 60% of the European market through its partnerships with some of the biggest European casino brands, including Betsson AB, 888 Holdings PLC, Entain PLC, and LeoVegas.
As an iGaming writer, one of the easiest things for me to say is that slots are, by far, the most popular type of casino game. But EVO’s recent years had me doubting this belief. Just take a look at this little timeline documenting EVO’s acquisitions since 2018.
| 2018 |
Ezugi | Live dealer solutions |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 |
Red Tiger Gaming | Volatile slots featuring periodic jackpots |
| 2020 |
NetEnt | The biggest slot supplier in Europe |
| 2021 |
BTG | Inventor of Megaways slots |
| 2021 |
Digiwheel | Wheel-based games |
| 2022 |
Nolimit City | High-volatility slots |
Over a short time span, EVO bought out some of the biggest names in online slots, including Big Time Gaming, the pioneer of Megaways slots, as well as NetEnt, a behemoth distributing wildly popular, branded slots in competitive jurisdictions across the world.
Now, I’m not a finance whizz, but since EVO bought NetEnt, not the other way around, I’d expect there’s more money in Live Casino than in online slots.
But how?
Well, it might be about competition. You really don’t need much to create a high-quality slot. In fact, with a bit of reasonable outsourcing, a slot produced by a single person could compete with the industry titans’ products.
Register to any online casino, and you’ll find a sizeable collection of slots - that’s a given. But not all of them offer live dealer games.
Those require professional streaming equipment, a physical studio, and well-prepared staff to run the tables. In contrast, slots and other RNG games need practically no maintenance.
EVO understood this difference and managed to build such an impressive name by offering turnkey live dealer solutions to other gambling businesses.
In the gambling gold rush, EVO sold pickaxes and shovels, a business strategy that paid off beautifully, considering the group is, by far, the most valuable B2B casino supplier in the world. Here’s how it compares to its, for lack of a better word, competitors.
| B2B Casino Supplier | Market Cap |
|---|---|
| Evolution AB | $22.86 billion |
| Playtech | $1.97 billion |
| NeoGames (BtoBet) | $0.97 billion |
I retrieved this data from CompaniesMarketCap.com, the same site currently listing Evolution Gaming as the third-largest gambling company in the world right now. They are preceded only by:
And then there’s Evolution Group, with its silly little game shows, serving more than 600 operators, including most of the biggest names in the industry. They are huge.
It should come as no surprise that online publications would be quick to cover any potential scandals related to the Swedish giant. To help you paint a full picture of this supplier, I gathered all the dirt I could find to spark a little conversation.
And, honestly, it wasn’t much.
The biggest scandal involving EVO takes us back to 2021, when the company’s stock plummeted 31% due to allegations of operating in banned markets, such as Iran and Syria, in violation of U.S. sanctions.
The scandal was sparked by an anonymous complaint filed with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. The company denied all allegations and declared that the accusations were meant to discredit the company.
Moreover, it stated that, as a B2B, it assumes no responsibility over players’ money. “The control of who plays the game is a strict responsibility of the operator,” declared the company.
Sounds fair, right? And it’s not unheard of for a jealous competitor to engage in a smear campaign. Moreover, why would the Swedish giant risk so much for the measly traffic coming from illegal jurisdictions? This is a company about the same size as the National Bank of Canada.
On the 1st of January, 2023, the Swedish government started enforcing a licensing framework for B2B gambling suppliers. The rules seem to shamelessly target EVO in an attempt to redirect traffic from offshore operators to regulated, licensed casinos.
Under the new rules, Swedish live casino providers are prohibited from offering services to unlicensed operators. The Swedish Gambling Authority would have greater oversight over the casino supply chain and fine breaches with up to 10% of the company’s turnover in the year prior.
The regulation aligns with the provisions of one of the strictest gambling jurisdictions, the United Kingdom, where a similar licensing framework for B2B casino suppliers was enforced in 2015.
Now, considering that Evolution has the technology and funds to avoid servicing players in sanctioned and illegal jurisdictions by detecting VPN manipulation and responsibly managing its partnerships, this shouldn’t be an issue.
It would, however, be a shame if restricted players could access EVO products and report the breach to the Swedish Gambling Authority via:
Post office service: Konsumentverket, Box 48, 651 02, Karlstad
E-mail: [email protected]
Let’s hope that does not happen (but if does, we love to see players having each others’ backs).
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