Such is the case with Sweden's Evolution AB on the one hand, which develops gambling software for online casino operators, and billionaire Ken Dart on the other, based in the Cayman Islands and familiar with investments in slippery terrain - British American Tobacco, for example.
No doubt familiar to all the enterprising investors among our readers, Evolution is a stock market curiosity. Listed in Stockholm, the group - which was once part of MarketScreener's European portfolio - has enjoyed an extraordinary rise, with sales increasing thirty-three-fold in the space of ten years.
Completely self-financed and highly profitable, this growth was, half-surprisingly, often accompanied by very low valuations, often below thirty times pre-pandemic profits, and below twenty times post-pandemic profits.
The subject of course concerns the business area in which Evolution works - that of gambling. Specifically, barely 40% of its sales are made on regulated markets in Europe and the USA; that leaves 60% of sales realized in unregulated markets, notably in Asia, where casinos are notoriously operated by some of the least reputable organizations.
It would have taken more than this to make Ken Dart back down, as he has just raised his stake to 9%, almost on a par with Evolution's two founders Jens von Bahr and Fredrik Österberg. The group remains closely controlled, with half the capital in the hands of the top five shareholders.
