Evolution shareholders have until today, 15 September, to accept Kenneth Dart's mandatory takeover offer of SEK 695 (£52.80) per share. The bid became mandatory after Dart's stake through Candle Lake crossed 30%. The board has already recommended rejection, and the investor himself appears uninterested in completing the deal.
The offer was pitched 5.7% below Evolution's share price on 12 August. Since then the live casino supplier's stock has risen 21%, widening the gap further. Rejection is expected next week, but that poses no problem for Dart: he retains a large holding in a company with a £13.5bn market cap — the third-largest public operator after Flutter Entertainment at £12.95bn.
Dart's real headache is Flutter. His control there has also passed 30%, but no mandatory offer has been triggered yet because around 12% is held through total return swaps. Those swaps expire in March 2028, and the investor is sitting on losses at current prices. Flutter shares on the NYSE have collapsed 63.8% over the past year, down more than $66 since the start of 2024. Dart is betting on a reversal, but so far it has not come.
Dart recently bought 5.8% of DraftKings, confirming his commitment to the gambling sector. His track record — decades of profitable bets, lately in tobacco — still carries weight. But right now the Cayman Islands billionaire is caught between a formality at Evolution and real pain at Flutter.
