Playtech Says Spectrum Report Backs Key Black Cube Findings on Evolution

Playtech plc said in a September 9, 2026 regulatory announcement that a filing submitted by Black Cube on September 8, 2026 in connection with the investigation firm’s ongoing litigation with Evolution AB contains, in full, the Spectrum Report, and that the Evolution-commissioned document corroborates fundamental aspects of Black Cube’s 2021 investigation into Evolution.

In the announcement, Playtech noted that Evolution retained Spectrum Gaming Group and commissioned the Spectrum Report as a response to Black Cube’s investigation. According to Playtech, the report instead corroborates fundamental aspects of that investigation, including concerns around the availability of Evolution’s games in certain prohibited markets, the regulatory implications of Evolution’s practices, and the lack of proactive monitoring of its customers.

Playtech said Evolution has spent months publicly characterising the Spectrum Report as exonerating it, while consistently refusing to make the document public on the argued basis that disclosure could reveal “sensitive proprietary financial information”. Now that the report is publicly available, Playtech said, it is clear why the document has become so important in the US litigation and why Evolution sought to keep it confidential.

What Playtech Says the Report Found

According to Playtech, Spectrum “specifically corroborate” several of Black Cube’s key findings and was unable “to confirm or refute” others because Evolution did not provide significant information Spectrum had requested. The withheld material included data that would have let Spectrum determine whether gaming sessions took place in Iran, Syria and Sudan, together with the revenue reports for those jurisdictions. Playtech said the absence of that information stopped Spectrum from finishing critical parts of its investigation and leaves what it described as serious questions for Evolution over the availability of its games in prohibited markets.

Playtech also pointed to what the report said about Evolution’s oversight of the operators that use its products. According to Playtech’s announcement, Spectrum reported that Evolution “does not take any proactive steps” to ensure that the customer-facing gambling operators using its products “are complying with the terms of the contracts”.

Playtech said it is evident that Evolution’s concern around the report’s release was not the proprietary financial information Evolution had cited, but instead the corroboration of what the document called “significant” compliance issues, which the Spectrum Report described as “problematic” and as ones that “place Evolution in a precarious situation with law enforcement officials”.

Playtech’s Stance

Playtech said it is pleased the Spectrum Report is now public and that it welcomes the opportunity for the court, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders to review the document in its entirety.

The company said it stands by its decision to commission the original Black Cube investigation. Playtech said it remains very confident the court proceedings will confirm the credibility and legitimacy of the investigation, along with the significant concerns it raised.

Litigation Background

Evolution set out its side of the dispute in an October 21, 2025 press release, in which it said it had learned through discovery that Playtech Software Limited, a Playtech subsidiary, commissioned Black Cube to prepare and disseminate the 2021 report. Evolution characterised that report as containing highly inflammatory and knowingly false claims intended to substantially harm its business for anti-competitive reasons, and said dissemination of the report caused multi-billion dollar damage to the company.

According to Evolution’s timeline, Playtech hired Black Cube in December 2020 and paid it more than £1.8 million, and high-level Playtech executives, including chief executive Mor Weizer, communicated with Black Cube regarding the investigation and report. During 2021, Evolution said, Black Cube secretly recorded conversations with at least five current or former Evolution employees and board members, using false personas, disguises and false pretenses, and edited those recordings to manufacture a misleading report. In November 2021, the New Jersey law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP submitted the Black Cube report to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board; Evolution said the firm was paid approximately $33,700 for services that included reviewing the report, drafting a cover letter that reiterated the report’s claims and sending it to Evolution’s regulators.

Evolution filed its lawsuit against Calcagni & Kanefsky and the then-anonymous parties behind the report in the Superior Court of New Jersey on December 14, 2021, for defamation, trade libel, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, fraud and other illegal conduct. The case remains ongoing.

According to Evolution’s statement, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board closed their investigations into Evolution in February 2024 without taking any corrective action. Evolution said the New Jersey regulator stated it had found “no evidence … showing that Evolution took illegal bets from New Jersey, another state, or any other prohibited jurisdiction”, and no evidence of inappropriate payments to Evolution by its clients.

On February 28, 2025, the New Jersey Superior Court directed Calcagni & Kanefsky to disclose the identity of its anonymous client and the report’s author and concluded that “the report is not truthful”, Evolution said. Black Cube’s identity was revealed by the law firm in April 2025, though Evolution said the firm maintained it did not know who had commissioned Black Cube, and Evolution added Black Cube as a defendant on June 11, 2025. In August 2025, Black Cube founder and director Avi Yanus filed an affidavit with what he described as new evidence; Evolution said the material was gathered through the same methods, including secretly recording a former Evolution employee under false pretenses. In September 2025, the court ordered Black Cube to reveal its client’s identity, found the 2021 report “objectively baseless” and called the August affidavit “self-serving”, according to Evolution, which said Black Cube’s appeal to the New Jersey Appellate Division and its emergency request to the New Jersey Supreme Court were both unsuccessful.

Evolution said in its October 2025 release that it would amend its complaint to include Playtech as a defendant, and that with the identity of the commissioning party known, the litigation could proceed in earnest and was expected to extend through 2026.