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Private intelligence firm Black Cube — founded by former Israeli intelligence officers, submitted videos and transcripts to a New Jersey court as part of a defamation case tied to a 2021 report on Evolution’s market access. In those recordings, former Evolution US commercial director Jeff Millar reacts to evidence of access from sanctioned or illegal markets and discusses the use of third-party aggregators to reach countries including China, South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, where online casinos are banned.

Another video shows Kfir Kugler, Evolution’s commercial director for Africa and Latin America, displaying a country-level revenue spreadsheet and asserting that players in Syria, including “Assad’s family” — likely use the company’s games. Black Cube agents also recorded themselves accessing Evolution titles from Iran as recently as May 2025 without a VPN, capturing local plates, street signs, and IP data on camera, according to the filing.

Company response and legal backdrop

Evolution calls the affidavit “false and defamatory” and says comments on the recordings are taken out of context. The company maintains it has “no interest” in being available in sanctioned markets, pointing instead to stream hijacking, illegal copying, or operator misuse, and notes that licensed operators control end-user access. A 2024 probe by New Jersey regulators concluded without action against Evolution, while a UK Gambling Commission Section 116 review opened in December 2024 remains ongoing.

The filing arrives in Evolution’s long-running New Jersey litigation aimed at unmasking the origin of the 2021 allegations. Court records and industry reporting have since identified Black Cube as the investigative firm behind that earlier report, though the commissioning client remains undisclosed.

Why it matters: revenue mix and market reaction

Bloomberg’s reporting notes that a majority of Evolution’s revenue — between 55% and 61% over the past four quarters, comes from what the company describes in earnings as “unregulated” markets, though it doesn’t publish a country breakdown. Millar is heard saying CEO Martin Carlesund receives regular briefings on these markets; Evolution says granular country data is commercially sensitive and it reports by region.

Investors sold the stock on the headlines: shares fell nearly 10% in early trading on August 13, 2025, after the report surfaced. The affidavit’s claims could factor into ongoing regulatory scrutiny and approvals in the US, where some state rules weigh activity in so-called black-market jurisdictions. Evolution continues to dispute the new evidence and its characterization.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-13/evolution-games-ran-in-banned-markets-execs-say-in-secret-tapes