Private Intelligence Firm Black Cube Presents Evidence of Global Gambling Violations in Defense Against Defamation Lawsuit by Evolution
In the protracted and increasingly acrimonious litigation pending before the Superior Court of New Jersey, a significant development occurred on the evening of December 1, 2025, when the private intelligence firm Black Cube submitted a new evidentiary filing in its defense against a defamation lawsuit brought by Evolution AB, the Stockholm-listed live-casino conglomerate. The document, accompanied by a motion to dismiss, presents what Black Cube describes as conclusive proof that Evolution’s gaming content continues to be accessible and fully operable in jurisdictions where it is either expressly prohibited by law or subject to comprehensive international sanctions, including Iran, Syria, Russia, France, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Black Cube seeks dismissal of the entire lawsuit under the New Jersey Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA), a robust anti-SLAPP statute designed to shield good-faith communications with regulatory authorities from retaliatory litigation. The firm contends that Evolution’s action is a textbook Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, intended not to vindicate legitimate reputational interests but to punish and deter the submission of adverse information to gambling regulators worldwide. In addition to UPEPA, Black Cube invokes the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, asserting immunity for petitioning government bodies and maintaining that its reports were accurate in all material respects and that Evolution has failed to produce evidence of “actual malice” sufficient to overcome First Amendment or equivalent protections.
At the heart of the latest submission lies a detailed affidavit from Dr. Avi Yanus, Black Cube’s director and co-founder, who states that an extensive, multi-year investigation conducted between 2020 and 2025 yielded “unequivocal” evidence of ongoing violations. This evidence includes dozens of video recordings that document the complete user journey—from geolocation verification and deposit of funds to prolonged gameplay—originating from within sanctioned territories. More than twenty-five such recordings were made from Iran between 2022 and October 2025, twelve from Russia, and nine from Syria, several of the latter allegedly linked to individuals connected to the Assad regime. Additional footage demonstrates unhindered access from France, a jurisdiction in which Evolution holds no license and where online casino offerings remain illegal under domestic law. The filing further cites covert recordings of Evolution’s former North American Commercial Director, Jeff Millar, who is heard acknowledging that the company knowingly operates in “sanctioned countries,” a disclosure he described as a “shock.”
The dispute is deeply colored by commercial rivalry. Court-ordered disclosures in October 2025 confirmed that Black Cube’s original 2021 investigation had been commissioned and financed by Playtech Software Limited, a subsidiary of Evolution’s direct competitor Playtech Plc, for a total consideration exceeding £2.4 million, including substantial success fees tied to regulatory repercussions and negative media coverage. Evolution has amended its complaint to add Playtech as a co-defendant and argues that the funding arrangement transforms Black Cube’s activities into unprotected commercial speech rather than petitioning activity eligible for anti-SLAPP safeguards. Black Cube counters that the commercial-speech exception is inapplicable, as its reports neither advertised its own services nor directly promoted Playtech’s products.
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Evolution has sought to discredit the new evidence on technical grounds, highlighting the use of private IP ranges in certain recordings, alleged timestamp inconsistencies, and the absence of enforcement action by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement following the 2021 report—an investigation that concluded in February 2024 with no findings of wrongdoing. Black Cube dismisses these objections as immaterial, emphasizing that isolated access failures do not negate the dozens of successful sessions it has documented over several years.
The Superior Court of New Jersey must now rule on Black Cube’s motion to dismiss. A favorable decision would terminate the case at an early stage and entitle the firm to recover attorneys’ fees under UPEPA, while denial would permit full discovery, potentially exposing further details of corporate espionage, regulatory circumvention, and competitive tactics within the multi-billion-dollar online gambling industry. As of December 3, 2025, no decision has been rendered, leaving the outcome—and its broader implications for both the parties and the sector—uncertain. Black Cube Evolution Lawsuit
