New Jersey court sides with Evolution, grants discovery of accusers' identity

Evolution AB, the company behind some of the industry’s best-known live casino games, can congratulate itself on a major legal win in a case it is battling in New Jersey.

In 2021, an anonymous report surfaced that alleged that the company had provided its products in jurisdictions that did not have licensed forms of gambling.

Evolution to get to the bottom of the report that wiped $3bn worth of value

The implications of this revelation were enough to write off billions worth of stock value at the time, with approximately $3bn in losses at the time.

Evolution did not immediately respond to what it intended to do, but through reflection, the company launched a counter-offensive, seeking to figure out who was the person or persons behind the damaging report.

Evolution has maintained that the findings of the report were false and that it only sought to tarnish the company’s reputation while causing it financial harm. Evoution was vindicated when a separate investigator by the regulator in New Jersey sided with the firm's own claims.

The company vowed to discover the people behind the report, and it seems to be closer to doing just that.

On February 28, John C. Porto, a Superior Court judge, ruled that Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP (CK), which represents the anonymous party, now has seven days to reveal their identity. This means that it should happen at some point next week at the very latest.

In its decision, the court stated: "The report lacks veracity and the plaintiff is entitled to all relevant discovery necessary. This court further finds that pursuit of the truth of the parties assertions is necessary here and disclosure of the client’s identity is ordered. The identity of the client is clearly necessary to enable the plaintiff to fully address its legal claims."

In other words, the court may be inclined to think that not all the claims in the report were indeed based in fact and that they were defamatory in nature, which would put the defendants in a difficult spot once their names are revealed.

Defendants lost their right to anonymity after the report was proven false

It is not clear what redress Evolution would seek once the identities of the people who ordered the report surface. However, the company has been able to cope with the fallout of the report fairly well. The New Jersey’s Department of Gaming Enforcement, for example, did probe the company for wrongdoing, but found no evidence of such.

The regulator stated that the report was not privileged, and in fact, it was misleading as Evolution did not promote its products to unregulated operators, nor did it benefit from such operations. Judge C. Porto has used this ruling on his own.

The next days should be interesting, as it would finally show who the real party behind the infamous report is. Was it a competitor or a company insider, or a party nobody has heard about before?

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