After an impressive 2020, it’s been onwards and upwards for Evolution as the casino behemoth announced a record first quarter of 2021.
The particular winner for the firm has been their live casino product, which has witnessed a remarkable 60% growth year-on-year.
The Interim Report for January-March, which is published in full on the Evolution website, is the first look at the brand’s financial performance since they acquired casino game developer NetEnt in December for around £1.7 billion.
And the results so far have been astonishing, with the £204 million recorded in the first quarter more than double what Evolution and NetEnt made combined in the same period in 2020.
The most improved area for Evolution was North America, where year-on-year they delivered an astonishing 204% increase in operating revenue. The Nordic region was next with a 164% growth, followed by Asia (155%) and the UK (116%).
The CEO of Evolution, Martin Carlesund, was understandably delighted with the numbers. “The positive trend from 2020 continues into the first quarter of 2021, where we see a good momentum both in terms of growth and profitability,” he said.
“Our Live Casino business continued to show very strong year-on-year growth reaching 60% in the quarter. It is the highest growth rate we have ever recorded in a quarter.
“We had a great momentum during 2020, and the group has continued to see a strong underlying demand for online casino with operators also in the first quarter of 2021.”
Dedicated Flutter Platform Unveiled by Playtech
Meanwhile, one of Evolution’s biggest rivals has unleashed a new live casino product of their own.
Playtech signed a supply deal with the Sky Gaming brand back in 2017, and the latest platform development will see SkyVegas get its own dedicated live casino channel for the first time.
Located in Riga, Latvia, Playtech will supply the software and the back-end technology that will see dozens of real dealer games hosted on the SkyVegas platform.
That will include Playtech’s famed Live Roulette and Live All Bets Blackjack, which were amongst the first live casino games to allow a number of punters to play at the same table simultaneously.
And SkyVegas will also be the first live casino to feature an exclusive Spin A Win game devised by Playtech Live.
It will be the first of many developments that Playtech provides the Flutter umbrella of brands – which also includes the casino channels at Betfair and Paddy Power – having agreed a further five-year supply deal with the gambling giant.
Their CEO, Shimon Akad, is looking forward to seeing what his team can come up with.
“Flutter is one of Playtech’s key strategic partners, and so this new long-term agreement to supply our innovative software and services across four key product verticals is significant,” he said.
“This is testament to the long standing and strong relations between Flutter and Playtech, and we look forward to continuing to work with Flutter in its core markets to support Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Casino over the next five years.”