Playtech has noted that a filing submitted yesterday by Black Cube in connection with its ongoing litigation with Evolution AB contains, in full, the highly anticipated Spectrum Report.

Evolution retained the Spectrum Gaming Group and commissioned the Spectrum Report to address and respond to Black Cube’s investigation. However, the Spectrum Report in fact corroborates fundamental aspects of Black Cube’s investigation, including issues around the availability of Evolution’s games in certain prohibited markets, the regulatory implications of its practices, and the lack of proactive monitoring of its customers.

For months, Evolution has publicly characterised the Spectrum Report as exonerating it. Yet, at the same time, Evolution consistently refused to make the report available to the public, purportedly on the basis that disclosure could reveal sensitive proprietary financial information. Now that the Spectrum Report is publicly available, it is clear both why the Spectrum Report has become so important in the US litigation – and why Evolution fought so hard to keep it confidential.

Although Evolution commissioned the Spectrum Report, Spectrum “specifically corroborate” several of Black Cube’s key findings and was unable “to confirm or refute” others, as Evolution failed to provide Spectrum with significant information it had requested. This included, for example, data that would allow Spectrum to determine whether gaming sessions occurred in Iran, Syria and Sudan, as well as the revenue reports for those jurisdictions. The failure to provide that information prevented Spectrum from completing critical parts of its investigation, meaning Evolution still has serious questions to answer around the availability of its games in prohibited markets.

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”. It is evident that Evolution’s concern around the release of the Spectrum Report was not related to sensitive proprietary financial information as Evolution argued, but instead, the corroboration of its “significant” compliance issues, which according to the Spectrum Report, are “problematic” and “place Evolution in a precarious situation with law enforcement officials”. 

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

Playtech stands by its decision to commission the original Black Cube investigation. The Company remains very confident that the court proceedings will confirm the credibility and legitimacy thereof and the significant concerns it raised.