EU iGaming weekly: Evolution’s UKGC settlement, Germany’s LUGAS expansion, Hacksaw’s Q2 growth
Evolution confirms a £4.75 million UK settlement alongside falling H1 revenue, Germany deepens its data infrastructure ahead of a treaty review, and Hacksaw’s quarterly growth extends its post-IPO run.
This week at a glance
- Evolution settles with the UKGC for £4.75 million as H1 revenue dips and the Galaxy Gaming deal lapses.
- Germany’s GGL to expand LUGAS with Dataport ahead of its treaty review.
- Isle of Man’s GSC launches a new Intelligence and Enforcement Division.
- H2GC forecasts UK offshore gambling stakes reaching £36 billion by 2031.
- Hacksaw posts 31% Q2 revenue growth and secures an Alberta registration.
Five biggest stories of the week
1. Evolution settles with the UKGC as H1 revenue dips and the Galaxy deal lapses
Evolution Malta Holding Limited reached a £4.75 million settlement with the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) after an investigation found that, between December 2023 and November 2024, six unlicensed websites served the supplier’s games to consumers in Great Britain.
The Commission’s public statement cited four breaches spanning risk assessment, policy detail, control effectiveness and the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations, and said it had considered suspending Evolution’s licence before settling instead.
John Pierce, Director of Enforcement at the UKGC, said the case ‘exposed serious weaknesses in Evolution’s money laundering risk assessment and its oversight of risks within its supply chain’. Evolution must now commission an independent audit of its policies within 12 months of the licence review’s conclusion.
The settlement landed just days after Evolution’s half-year results, which showed net revenue down 1.4% to €1,030.8 million for H1 2026, with the group citing pressure from compliance costs and regional volatility.
Separately, the agreed closing period on Evolution’s 2024 deal to acquire Galaxy Gaming expired on 17 July; Chief Executive Officer Martin Carlesund said the transaction was no longer significant for a company of Evolution’s size, while confirming Evolution intends to pay Galaxy Gaming a termination fee of 5,234,678 dollars.
Evolution also continued its share buyback programme, taking its holding of own shares to 7,737,125 as of 17 July, and reported growth in Latin America and North America against a decline in Asia.
2. Germany’s GGL doubles down on LUGAS ahead of the treaty review
The GGL confirmed it will keep expanding LUGAS, Germany’s cross-operator monitoring platform, in partnership with Dataport, ahead of the first statutory evaluation of the Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV 2021).
In 2025, LUGAS processed data from more than 60 licensed operators and around five million registered players, and from 2027, the regulator’s analysis is set to draw more heavily on safe server data. The expansion follows the first change to online slot stake limits since the treaty took effect, with a tiered system introduced on 1 July that replaces the flat €1 cap with limits of up to €5 for players who have shown no signs of harmful gambling over a 90-day period.
The investment comes as the GGL’s own channelisation estimate of 77% for 2025 is disputed by the industry: Deutscher Online Casinoverband Vice President Simon Priglinger-Simader has put the real figure closer to 50%, citing sampling issues in the regulator’s methodology.
Both the Deutscher Sportwettenverband and the Deutscher Online Casinoverband have urged the GGL’s new Administrative Board chairman, Christian Hochgrebe, to raise the dispute during the review.
3. Isle of Man’s GSC steps up action against illegal gambling
The GSC has established an Intelligence and Enforcement Division, including a resource dedicated to perimeter monitoring, part of a wider push across European regulators to police unlicensed and spoof gambling sites.
The regulator pointed to recent cooperation with Turkish authorities, notifying operators of foreign market restrictions, and confirmed it maintains a public register of websites fraudulently claiming to hold a GSC licence, alongside its list of genuine approved URLs.
4. UK offshore stakes forecast to reach £36bn by 2031, H2GC says
H2 Gambling Capital’s (H2GC) report for the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) forecasts UK offshore gambling stakes rising from £16.6 billion in 2025 to £36 billion by 2031, though the equivalent revenue measure is far smaller: £685 million in 2025, rising to a forecast £1.4 billion.
Onshore GGY channelisation has fallen from 97% in 2019 to 92% in 2025 and is projected to reach 85% by 2031, a trend H2GC links to the remote gaming duty rise to 40% from 1 April 2026 and the further remote betting duty increase due in 2027.
Grainne Hurst, Chief Executive of the Betting and Gaming Council, said ‘the only winners from these tax hikes will be criminal operators based overseas’.
5. Hacksaw posts 31% Q2 revenue growth, confirms Alberta registration
Hacksaw AB reported second-quarter revenue of €59.3 million, up 31% year on year, with adjusted EBIT up by the same margin to €48.4 million.
Ana Vrabic Verdir, a board member of the company, was appointed interim group chief executive during the quarter and said the group’s in-house release cadence had risen to five games a month.
Hacksaw added Slovenia and Paraguay to its licensed markets during the period and, after the quarter closed, secured a supplier registration in Alberta.
What to watch next week
Evolution’s 12-month clock on its independent UKGC audit is now running, and the market will be watching for any further move on the lapsed Galaxy Gaming agreement. In Germany, attention turns to how the GGL’s channelisation dispute with trade bodies plays out as the GlüStV 2021 review proceeds under new Administrative Board chairman Christian Hochgrebe. In the UK, the widening gap between offshore stakes and offshore revenue flagged by H2GC is likely to keep feeding into the debate over the remote betting duty rise due in April 2027.
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