Evolution agrees £4.75m settlement over unlicensed UK access
Evolution has agreed to pay £4.75 million to the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), bringing to a close an 18-month licence review after the regulator found its games had been made available to British consumers through a small number of unlicensed gambling websites.
The settlement concludes a licence review launched in December 2024, with the Commission determining that Evolution content was accessible via six unlicensed online casinos operated by two companies in breach of the supplier’s contractual terms.
According to Evolution, the operators actively circumvented the restrictions that had been put in place to prevent UK access. The company stressed that the review did not uncover any wider pattern of its content being available to unlicensed operators serving the British gambling market.
The live casino giant said it fully cooperated with the Commission throughout the investigation and immediately terminated its commercial relationships with the two operators once it became aware of the issue.
Evolution also said it has continued investing in technical, legal and commercial safeguards to prevent unauthorised access to its products, including the rollout of enhanced ring-fencing measures designed to strengthen market segregation.
While acknowledging that no compliance framework can completely eliminate attempts by third parties to bypass restrictions, the iGaming supplier said it remains committed to working closely with regulators and maintaining industry-leading compliance standards.
Evolution Chief Executive Officer Martin Carlesund said the company had taken swift action after discovering the breaches.
“At Evolution, we always want to do what is right, and it is not acceptable that six unlicensed sites offered Evolution content in the regulated UK market,” he said.
“We do not want traffic from unlicensed operators and will always move quickly to address any such situation.
“We welcome the conclusion of the review.”
The settlement represents one of the more significant enforcement outcomes involving a major B2B supplier in the UK regulated market, although Evolution emphasised that the Commission’s findings were limited to the six identified websites and did not reveal broader compliance failures across its UK operations.
The UK remains one of Evolution’s largest regulated markets, with the company supplying live casino and RNG content to licensed operators under the oversight of the UK Gambling Commission.
