Evolution Gambling
Evolution Gaming is one of the premier suppliers of Live Casino games to
online gambling markets. For the last 11 years, they have played a key role in
helping the Live Casino format explode in popularity. They are such a staple in
the online gaming world that they are now listed on the NASDAQ in Stockholm as
of June 7th, 2017.
Evolution Gaming holds licenses from multiple different gambling authorities, including Britain’s Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the Division of Gaming Enforcement, State of New Jersey. This means that its games have been checked for fairness and stability thoroughly many different.
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- Evolution’s stellar line up of titles includes 3-card and Caribbean Stud Poker, Baccarat, Blackjack, Casino Hold’em, Roulette and so much more. Evolution packs more than just quality, it operates in quantity too with each of its Live Dealer variants playable in a range of languages too.
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They are licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority, the Alderney Gambling
Control Commission, the United Kingdom Gambling Association, the Belgium Gaming
Commission, and the Romania National Gambling Office, all at the same time. The
first three licensing companies that we listed have a great reputation across
the industry for being strict on the sites that they watch over. This ensures
that their games are 100% ethical and you will not have to worry about getting
cheated out of your money.
In addition to their reliable licenses, they also hold a certification from
Bureau Veritas. This company tests the random number generator for each game
with tons of simulations to make sure that it is working correctly. This ensures
that the outcome of each game will be completely random.
What Does Evolution Gaming Do?
The main focus of Evolution Gaming is to provide quality and entertaining
Live Casino games for online casinos to use. These games feature a real-life
dealer at your service via webcam, and this format has taken over the gambling
industry in recent years.
The video quality of their live feeds has a reputation for being extremely
pleasant to look at, due to the high definition video. This is key to making
sure the cards and tables are easy to read so that Live Casino gamblers can
clearly distinguish what is happening in their games. Players not being able to
clearly see what is happening is a big problem for other Live Casino software
creators, which gives Evolution a large advantage over their competitors.
When Was Evolution Gaming Founded?
Evolution was founded back in 2006. They began offering their mobile games in
2012.
Where Is Evolution Gaming Based Out Of?
Evolution Gaming originally began their operation out of Riga, Latvia.
However, since their humble beginnings, they have managed to spread their base
far and wide due to popular demand for their products. They currently feature
live broadcast feeds from Canada, Estonia, Malta, Netherlands, Sweden, Georgia,
Belgium, Italy, Spain, Romania, and the United Kingdom.
Why Is Evolution Gaming Relevant?
One reason that Evolution Gaming is relevant in today’s gambling world is due
to the fact that they supply high-quality Live Casino games to so many different
popular online casinos. These casinos include household names such as 888,
William Hill, Unibet, Ladbrokes, Mr Green, and Bwin.
Anyone who doubts the relevance of Evolution Gaming has clearly not been
paying much attention to the EGR Operator Awards for the last eight years. The
EGR Operator Awards is somewhat similar to the Grammy Awards, except it is for
the eGaming industry only.
Evolution Gaming has won the award for the Live
Casino Supplier of the Year at the EGR for the last eight years in a row, which
is extremely impressive.
In addition, we consider any gaming software company that is publicly traded
on a stock exchange to be highly relevant. Their willingness to enter such a
regulated market proves that they are on the up-and-up, and their level of
relevance does not appear to be diminishing anytime soon.
Popular Products from Evolution Gaming
Live Caribbean Stud Poker
One of the most recent additions to Evolution Gaming’s Live Casino game
library is Caribbean Stud Poker. It is pretty rare to find this game in Live
Casino format. In fact, it is so rare that Evolution Gaming is the ONLY company
that provides this game to major licensed online casinos.
This fast-paced poker game deals each player five cards, and they must then
compete against the dealer to make the best poker hand. There is also a
progressive jackpot feature that is available if you make an optional Bonus Bet,
which makes the game even more exciting!
Live Dream Catcher
One unique variation of Live Casino games that Evolution Gaming provides is
known as the Live Dream Catcher. This game features a large wheel that is
mounted on the wall, and the rules to play are very simple. You just need to
pick what number you think the wheel will stop on, and if you are correct, your
winnings will be decided by the specific odds that are associated with the
number you hit.
If you happened to be at the 2017 Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, you would
have noticed that this Dream Catcher game won the award for the Best Digital
Product of the Year. This is impressive, considering this game was just released
in 2017.
Multi-Game Play
One of the most interesting products that Evolution provides for their loyal
customers is known as Multi-Game Play. If you are tired of only being able to
play one game at a time because of the downtime in between hands, the answer for
your troubles has finally arrived.
Multi-Game Play allows for online gamblers to play multiple tables at the
same time in order to increase the excitement and the tempo of each game. Anyone
who uses this feature will be allowed to play up to four different Live Casino
games at once.
Wrap-Up
If you enjoy playing Live Casino games, chances are good that you love
playing on one of Evolution Gaming’s software products. These products can be
found in numerous big-name casinos around the world, and they regularly win tons
of awards at various eGaming awards ceremonies each year.
Evolution Gaming specializes exclusively in Live Casino games, and offers
unique variations such as Dream Catcher, Caribbean Stud Poker, and Ultimate
Texas Hold’em. They even offer a special feature known as Multi-Game Play, which
will allow you to play up to four of these games at the same time.
Evolution Gaming CEO Martin Carlesund speaks to Tim Poole about waking up in the middle of the night, attending sales meetings as a child and trying to build “the best company in the world.”
“If I wake up at 3:30am, a little bit sweaty and stressed, that is a good thing, because then I’m actually thinking about it. The day I don’t, where I stop thinking about it, I get to the horrible, unhappy part of life where you should have quit already.”
That, according to Evolution Gaming CEO Martin Carlesund, is a brief insight into what sets the live casino supplier apart from its competitors.“We are crazy, paranoid; we really want to be better every day. We want to be the best company in the world. How are we going to get there? If you lose that, you should quit.”
Being “the best company in the world” is an aim Carlesund repeats continuously throughout our interview. At the same time however, Carlesund at no point claims Evolution actually is the best, not even in gaming. The other point the executive is at pains to repeat is his desire to stay humble. It is his drive and ambition to take Evolution to the summit of the business world but, should the firm ever get there, you won’t hear him shouting it from the rooftops.
While Gambling Insider has previously written about the need for work/life balance in our July/August magazine, Carlesund’s approach has evidently yielded results for Evolution. But, although the live casino firm’s employees may not know it, they owe some of their success to the declining textile industry in Sweden. Born in 1970, Carlesund grew up in a “medium-sized Swedish town,” frequenting sales meetings for his family’s sewing businesses when he was “quite young.”
It's good to have an experience where you have run a company that is in trouble, where you have to cut costs and see how you survive in a situation like that, and to expand and really build a company, getting as much market share as you can
That hands-on childhood helped Carlesund form an early career ambition, which would soon become a well-defined goal: “I was sure I wanted to run a company in some shape or form – that was very early. That was the ambition and that was my goal; it was clear quite early. I have a master’s degree in finance and I studied computer science; I was a developer and programmer. I started working with Ericsson early; my first degree was called the first level of engineering in Sweden. But yes, my ambition was to run a company quite early.”
After moving to the Netherlands, Carlesund built up experience in the telecoms sector. Later though, he went back to textiles, before becoming a CTO and then overseeing mergers and acquisitions. At 29, he was the youngest CEO of a public company in Sweden, going on to run the national Yellow Pages in Sweden and Finland. He ended up entering gaming through a friend, joining Highlight Media – “the largest affiliate at that time in the industry.”
It’s at this point in the interview Carlesund first expresses his intention to remain “humble.” Hearing of the Swede’s rounded industry experience, Gambling Insider asks if it’s better to learn from different sectors or to follow a single industry closely for one’s whole career. The CEO replies: “You should be very humble when you judge and make statements about those things, because they can come across as arrogant. But I think, for sure, it’s very good to have run businesses in different parts of the total landscape of business.
“It's good to have an experience where you have run a company that is in trouble, where you have to cut costs and see how you survive in a situation like that, and to expand and really build a company, getting as much market share as you can. To only have one of these is maybe not perfect. I would also say in the gaming industry, there have not always been experienced people running companies. I think we’re getting there now, slowly reaching the professional level and actually running companies like they should.”
Precisely how gaming companies are run is the perfect segue into our next area of discussion with Carlesund. It is, of course, the reason we are interviewing him for this CEO Special: his journey since taking over as Evolution CEO in 2015. It’s a road he describes as “intense, hungry, full speed ahead” and has seen the company grow from “about 1,200 employees to 8,000.” The executive, again, is modest enough to acknowledge his “fantastic” management team and speak of his good fortune in that respect.
Whenever anyone is interviewed by Gambling Insider, it’s important our editorial team maintains a balanced view and doesn’t lavish a CEO with praise just because they’ve taken time out of their day to speak with us. But the problem in this case is Evolution’s results have been so strong, there is little for us to criticise. Since its foundation in 2006, the organisation has grown emphatically year-on-year and, unlike many in gaming, has even seen its share price take an upward trajectory in recent years. After its IPO on 20 March 2015, Evolution shares settled at a price of SEK 17.95 ($2.07). Four-and-a-half years on (a timeframe which coincides with Carlesund’s arrival), the supplier boasts a share valuation of SEK 252.50.
Evolution Gaming Stock
For Q3 2019 (the most recently-published results at the time of writing), Evolution generated revenue of €94.7m ($105.4m), an increase of 47% year-on-year. EBITDA rose 74% to €48.5m and overall profit grew 87% to €39.8m. “We’re growing everywhere,” Carlesund remarks, before turning these results into a broader message: “That is also important to mention: everyone says ‘oh, the UK isn’t going well.’ Woah, it’s a fantastic market: we’re growing 12%. There’s nothing wrong with growing 12%. Come back when it’s declining 20% to 30% – then you need to cut costs. So this gaming perception of problematic markets on growth, it’s like: get real!
“But we’re growing in revenue. The Nordics is maturing somewhere like 30% and the UK 12%. In the rest of Europe, it’s 42%. Then, of course, Asia is growing tremendously fast, more than 100%, and North America is growing tremendously fast – also 100%+. The rest of the world is up 54%. Overall, we come to a growth of 47%, which is an increase of growth speed, even though we’re 50% larger.”
Hearing those figures, we ask the CEO if Evolution has the growth of live casino as a whole to thank. Here though, Carlesund is perhaps at his most confident. While he admits the overall product is growing, the exec proudly tells us Evolution is “driving live and increasing the gap to competition every single day.” Games like Monopoly Live are seeing the provider attract “completely new players.” In his view, live casino has the “completely right” idea, as so much of entertainment today is “driven by people looking at YouTube, TikTok or Twitter.”
Naturally, talk of video services like YouTube and Netflix is becoming increasingly important for gaming CEOs. Carlesund is not the only executive in this CEO Special to bring them up, while Evolution CPO Todd Haushalter echoed a similar message speaking to Gambling Insider last year. According to Haushalter, these streaming providers are ultimately competition for live gaming, not just separate products. Carlesund agrees: “The first thing is we fight against the little time we have where we actually do something we want to do. You, me and everyone else has a number of things we have to do: those things involve sleeping, eating and taking care of our families.
“These things are fantastic – it’s good to sleep and family’s the most important priority. But then you have an hour or two where you can do something for yourself. You can go to the gym, you can watch a movie on Netflix, or you can just surf on your computer. That is the time we’re fighting for. We’re not only competing with each other; we’re competing to get a piece of that time.”
While sports betting lives off the back of the sporting calendar, Carlesund believes other forms of gaming must create that demand, “not stagnating or doing repeatedly 20 more of the same thing every day.” That explains why, in the battle for a player’s time, Evolution’s games have often stood out. Evolution products have repeatedly won Global Gaming Awards and, for Carlesund, it’s easy to “fall in love” with his development team’s games. When asked for a favourite, the Swede namedrops Monopoly Live, Deal or No Deal Live and Lightning Dice, warning there will be more to come at ICE London this year.
It's good to sleep and family's the most important priority. But then you have an hour or two where you can do something for yourself. You can go to the gym, you can watch a movie on Netflix, or you can just surf on your computer. That is the time we are fighting for. We're not only competing with each other; we're competing to get a piece of that time
But what exactly drives Evolution’s creative process? On this topic, the CEO has plenty to divulge. In fact, he tells Gambling Insider he “can talk about this for hours!” He explains: “You have to have ambition in your company; you have to be strict and cost-efficient. But you have to put a team together, a company together and my aim is to build the best company in the world. I really mean that. It should be better than Spotify, Facebook, Google; it should be the best one.
“If you attract top people, challenge them and let them do their thing, then you get that fantastic creative process when the company really goes forward. That won’t happen if you don’t have that ambition, you are controlling or you think you are just naturally better than everyone else. You should always recruit better people: if I can find someone better than me, fantastic, get them. Be aware, I’m tough; I’m direct and tell people what I want. But, on top of that, there is this message of building the best company in the world and attracting the best talent.”
It strikes Gambling Insider being tough and letting people flourish autonomously can often be two very different things. Is there a balance between being direct and letting people get on with their job? “For sure, there is always a balance. But the route to being the best company in the world doesn’t go through a lot of fancy offices, painted walls, expensive furniture and the best coffee in the world. The route to the best company is the way you work together, that everyone has respect and you have a directness; that there is no politics and you have a goal together.”
Carlesund continues: “Sometimes, I think when companies earn money, instead of focusing on doing that, they buy expensive furniture and offices. That won’t work – that’s not what drives people. It’s nice for a week or two, but you get used to it. I’m not saying you should sit in a basement with no paint on the walls. Our offices are fantastic – but they are efficient. They are just a tool to get what we want. ”So what are Carlesund’s next steps, as he embraces waking up at 3:30am with a new idea or reflection on what he could have done differently at that day’s board meeting? Emphasising his “big goals” for Evolution, the CEO wants to continue taking market share and creating “groundbreaking products.”
While praising what the supplier has achieved so far, Carlesund unsurprisingly adds there is much more to be attained. He says: “When you look at a company, you have to look at the management; you have to look at who is there, what they are doing, how hungry they are. Where do they want to go? If you don’t see that hunger, energy or willingness to go anywhere – if you see people content with quite a good quarter – there is no drive in the company to move forward. Sometimes that is forgotten.”
But Carlesund closes with a different message. Though this is a CEO Special, the Swede is keen to acknowledge no good leader is worth much without their team. “The people working at Evolution are fantastic,” he beams. “We’re built by thousands of talented employees. Without them, I would be nothing. My job is to ensure they can be the best every day. In everything I do, that is the most important thing. These people deserve that. Our total success and everything we do comes down to them.”