Evolution AB, a premier B2B provider and innovator within the online casino gaming sector, has released a statement exposing Playtech Software Limited (a subsidiary of Playtech Plc) as the one who commissioned the 2021 Black Cube investigation. The campaign produced a “defamatory report,” as defined by Evolution, that contains false claims about the company’s business practices.
The ongoing litigation in the Superior Court of New Jersey has produced documents that show Playtech hired Black Cube, a private intelligence firm, in December 2020, to create a false report about Evolution’s regulatory misconduct. The report was then submitted in 2021 to the gaming regulators of New Jersey and Pennsylvania by the U.S. law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP. It was then mentioned in a Bloomberg article a few weeks later.
Evolution initially filed a suit against the law firm and unnamed defendants, alleging defamation, fraud, and tortious interference. Since then, it’s been proven that Black Cube and Playtech were, without a doubt, behind the report. Both parties are accused of hiding their involvement during the proceedings.
Regulatory inquiries into Evolution by New Jersey and Pennsylvania were completed in February 2024, but no enforcement actions have been taken. According to the NJDGE, there was no evidence of illegal betting activity or regulatory breaches. Only last month, the New Jersey Superior Court described Black Cube’s report as “objectively baseless,” and the firm was ordered to reveal its client, which was identified in filings as Playtech.
Evolution has released a statement saying it’ll amend the complaint filed to include Playtech as a named defendant. The lawsuit, now ongoing for four years, is expected to continue through next year as well.
As of now, Playtech and Black Cube have not released any statement in response.
Here’s what Evolution had to say on the situation:
“It is deeply disturbing to learn that one of our competitors has gone to such extraordinary lengths to damage our business and reputation by hiring Black Cube and paying them over 1.8 million GBP to fabricate a report they knew would have extremely harmful repercussions. The report, which was furnished to regulators by a law firm representing Black Cube, Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP, and purposely leaked to the media, was determined by two state regulators in the U.S. to be lacking in evidentiary support. Later, the New Jersey Superior Court also determined that the defamatory report was untruthful and lacked veracity. Notwithstanding those findings, dissemination of the report has resulted in multi-billion dollar damage to our company.
Black Cube has a well-documented history of using deceitful methods to sway public opinion by launching smear campaigns on behalf of its clients. As part of its so-called investigation, Black Cube used highly unethical tactics, including initiating meetings with current and former Evolution employees and board members under false pretenses and secretly recording those interactions; using disguises and falsified identities; and cherry picking edited recordings to fabricate evidence to achieve its desired, false narrative. It is notable that the subjects of Black Cube’s report disavowed the allegations and said the report entirely misrepresented their comments.
We sued the law firm and its then-anonymous co-conspirators for defamation, trade libel, and other illegal conduct in 2021. After years of litigation, the New Jersey Superior Court judge presiding over the case found Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP, its client, and the report’s ultimate sponsor “prepared and disseminated false allegations about [Evolution’s] business practices that were designed to harm, and did harm, [Evolution’s] business,” and ordered Defendants to reveal the identity of the parties responsible for the report.
Although Playtech has finally been identified after years of trying to keep its involvement in this smear campaign a secret, Black Cube continues to evade the Court’s discovery orders by withholding relevant information. We will continue to hold Black Cube, Playtech, and all the other players in this defamatory scheme responsible for their misconduct. We are confident in our legal position and look forward to finally holding Playtech and its accomplices to account for the significant harm they have caused.”
