Evolution CEO: We are waiting for the US igaming legalization rush
Martin Carlesund says Stockholm-listed supplier is “ready to go” in multiple states following steady growth in North America in Q1 2024
Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund has revealed the supplier is ready to launch in new igaming states, with the group biding its time amid the political slog before striking.
The Stockholm-listed firm released its Q1 2024 figures on Wednesday, April 24, which showed growth in North America continued, with revenue standing at €62.1m ($66.4m).
As the number of states launching sports betting continues to increase, North Carolina being the 30th last month, online casino pales in comparison.
As it stands, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are the only states to offer legal online casino with the Ocean State launching last month to become the seventh state.
With further expansion on the horizon for Evolution, Carlesund confirmed a new studio in New Jersey following the supplier expanding its relationship with Caesars Digital as well as a new client in Fanatics.
The live casino giant also went live in Delaware with its slot game offering, and Carlesund confirmed the firm is now waiting for an eighth state to launch the vertical.
Speaking in its post-results analyst call, the CEO explained the company is gearing up in states where icasino is rumored to go live next but wasn’t able to say where it will be.
He said: “When it comes to states, it’s very hard. It’s the usual suspects of anything from New York to Illinois, Indiana, and others.
“And since those are political processes, it’s very hard for us to predict. And honestly, we don’t work out of that. As soon as we have a rumor, we go there. We’re ready to go and we’re just waiting. We are essentially waiting in a number of states just for the political process to conclude.”
Though revenue in North America rose in Q1, there was an acceptance that the firm did not do as well in RNG compared to Europe.
When asked if the RNG pressure is high compared to live, Carlesund responded that there is still time to grow and that Evolution would be taking a similar approach to Europe.
He replied: “Share of live is still fairly low in North America so there is potential for that to grow, that takes time. We know that from Europe.
“It always takes time to build that market so to answer that, we are growing live with the market and we are not doing as well as we could with RNG. We look forward to take the same steps as we do in Europe, step-by-step to increase the situation also in RNG.
“In North America, we are on a total level growing 5% quarter on quarter and are taking steps forward. Our live business is growing in line with the market but we are still not where want to be with RNG, which is behind Europe in development.”