No Dividend for Evolution Shareholders for 2025 Amid Several Issues

Evolution has decided not to pay its shareholders a dividend for 2025, marking a shift from its usual policy to distribute at least half its yearly net profit to investors.

The live casino supplier is facing regulatory challenges, a lawsuit and disappointing financial results. Evolution said:

“The purpose of the company’s capital allocation is to create long‑term shareholder value, and the board has assessed that a cash dividend is not the best way to currently achieve this. The board will provide an update once further decisions regarding capital allocations for 2026 have been finalised.”

UK license review

In December 2024, the Gambling Commission initiated a review into Evolution’s license, after the British regulator identified the supplier’s games were accessible from the UK via an unlicensed operator’s website. Evolution’s games were made unavailable for UK players via the website in question after being informed of the investigation, and Evolution said it was cooperating with the Commission in an attempt to resolve the matter.

Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund previously estimated this license review was likely to be concluded by the end of 2025. However, the Commission’s findings are yet to be announced.

Should Evolution be allowed to continue operating in the UK, it will have to contend with a significantly increased tax burden. From April, remote gaming duty, paid on online casino bets, will increase to 40% of gross gaming yield from 21%. About 3% of Evolution’s revenue comes from the UK market.

It is currently unclear as to what exact punishment Evolution could receive, if any, from the Commission. The review could lead to a number of outcomes, which include no action being required, conditions being imposed on the licence, financial sanction, suspension and revocation of the licence to operate.

Results could have impacted dividend

For the full year 2025, Evolution announced net revenue of €2.07 billion (£1.79 billion), which was up just 0.2% from the year before. Total operating revenues fell 4.3% to €2.12 billion and other operating revenues dropped 65.8% to €51.7 million. EBITDA also decreased, falling 9.2% to €1.42 billion. Despite this, Carlesund claimed it was

“one of our strongest years ever with amazing new games and studio expansions in all parts of the world.”

Profit for the period was €1.06 billion, down 14.6%. For 2025, cash flow from financing activities included dividends to shareholders of €572.5 million. Shares in Evolution fell from 590 SEK (£47.27) following the announcement of the removal of the 2025 dividend payment to 574.40 SEK, but this has since recovered to 583.60 SEK at the time of writing.

Bitter legal dispute

In October, fellow supplier Playtech was revealed to be behind a secret investigation into Evolution, which was submitted to New Jersey and Pennsylvania gaming regulators in 2021.

The investigation accused Evolution of regulatory violations, and included allegations of operations in various black and grey markets. New Jersey and Pennsylvania’s gaming regulators closed their investigations in February 2024 without taking corrective action.

Playtech, which is said to have paid Black Cube £1.8 million to carry out the investigation, has since denied engaging in a smear campaign but said it “stands by” its decision to commission the report. Evolution is planning to take legal action against Playtech, and said in its FY 25 report it expects the litigation to extend through 2026.