Evolution CEO bags €10m pay packet for full-year 2021

Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund took home more than €10m (£8.3m) in 2021, according to the live casino giant’s full-year report.

Carlesund, who has served as CEO since November 2016, oversaw Evolution’s 90% year-on-year rise for full-year revenue to €1.1bn as the firm continues to dominate the market.

Evolution also recorded a 121% leap in EBITDA from €332.2m in 2020 to €734.7m in 2021, with a corresponding margin of 68.7%, up from 59.2%.

The live casino giant saw its profit for the period rocket 113% YoY from €284.6m in 2020 to €605.4m in 2021.

Carlesund’s substantial renumeration package started with a base salary of €1.94m before netting a whopping bonus of €5.76m.

Carlesund also received €2.43m in social security payments, taking his total pay packet to €10.14m.

This represents an exponential rise for Carlesund, who in 2020 took home €1.82m.

In comparison, Flutter CEO Peter Jackson was awarded a £2.6m annual bonus in 2021 and a fixed salary of £923,000.

Comparatively, Carlesund’s six C-level colleagues’ total renumeration package reached €13.64m, with Carlesund’s individual bonus outstripping the collective’s €5.28m

CTO David Craelius, CPO Todd Haushalter, COO Olesya Ivanova, CFO Jacob Kaplan, chief strategy officer Sebastian Johannisson and chief HR officer Louise Wiwen-Nilsson make up the Evolution C-level.

Jens von Bahr, Evolution chair, was paid a total of €549m for 2021, with total board and executive pay amounting to €24.5m.

Elsewhere, Evolution confirmed it was continuing to bolster it live casino output, with new studios being built in Madrid, Armenia and a fourth US studio in Connecticut.