How Andriy Matyukha uses FavBet to take bets from Russians and operate for years without a license in Ukraine

The controversial betting company "FavBet," registered in Ukraine, continues to operate in the Russian market despite loudly declaring that it had exited the market. At the same time, "FavBet" has not yet acquired a license for bookmaker activities, although the relevant Law legalizing the work of such companies was adopted two years ago. Because of this, the country’s budget annually loses over a hundred million hryvnias.

But that’s not all. In addition to the ethical and political component, gamblers should know that the bookmaker "FavBet" is a scammer who cynically profits at the expense of inexperienced players. Promising mountains of gold, bookmakers systematically lure money from their clients and leave them "with nothing".

It is noteworthy that the limited liability company "Bookmaker Company "FavBet" is registered in Kyiv on Stepana Bandera Avenue. There is some irony in this, especially considering the statements of this office about leaving the Russian and Belarusian markets. 

For example, the specialized marketing site MMR posted a publication with a corresponding statement from the management of FavBet. Just pay attention to a small detail of this material - it is a partner, i.e. advertising. As they say, "for money" many unscrupulous media are ready to post a lot on their resources, turning a blind eye to important nuances and to checking the reliability of the said materials. 

 

Really, "FavBet" has never worked in the Russian Federation? Do you believe it? No? And rightly so.

There are no lawsuits against the company? There are lawsuits in other jurisdictions...

In fact, Favbet operates both in the online gaming market in the Russian Federation and in Belarus. Many well-known Ukrainian media outlets have been writing about this recently, but there is also other evidence of such activity. Read on for more details. 

The FavBet company, two years after the Law on the Legalization of Gambling in Ukraine was adopted, has not managed to obtain a bookmaker’s license for its work. As a result, the country’s budget annually loses 108 million hryvnia. What can you say, the gambling company knows how to evade taxes. The company also fools its clients, who are eager to make easy money.

There are plenty of court cases: what is known about the scandalous bookmaker’s office

LLC "Bookmaker Company "FavBet" is registered in Kyiv and has a status capital of 31 million hryvnia. 

And when you go to the YouControl information register, the system automatically immediately issues a warning about the FavBet office: “Special attention is required”, “Attention must be paid”. 

During the automatic express analysis, the service checks the reliability of the counterparty based on data from 180 information sources and an analysis of over half a thousand factors. 

As you can see, there are a lot of risks involved...

Moving on. The owner, founder and sole beneficiary is Andriy Matyukha. According to media reports, he left the country a couple of days before the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine and now lives in Croatia. 

It is noteworthy that according to the financial statements for 2020, the company’s income is zero. And also:

- Net profit in the minus: - 565.7 thousand hryvnia;

- Assets: total 7.6 thousand hryvnia;

- Liabilities: 372.1 thousand hryvnia. 

Data for last year is not yet publicly available.

In the unified judicial register, the office is listed in 6 documents that relate to civil cases. 

The head of FavBet, Ihor Siruk, is also involved in two civil court cases related to this office. 

And one more nuance. The company "FavBet" also works under the brand "Favorit".

In fact, when entering the site Favorit.com.ua via VPN, it is on behalf of “FavBet” that they respond that you cannot enter… 

And here the number of court cases is simply off the charts. And we are no longer talking about civil cases, but about criminal ones...

So, when searching the court registry by the name of the site, the service gives out 35 documents. And this is only one option for searching the registry, and if you dig deeper, you will find many more criminal cases. But, today we will not go into detail. 

And note that all documents without exception concern criminal court cases of “Favorit”.

What about FavBet’s bookmaker license? It doesn’t have one!

As reported by the publication "Fakty.org", this office has a whole stack of licenses, but the main one, i.e. for bookmaking activities, is missing.

It should be noted that the company has an online casino license worth 23 million hryvnia. 

The rest of the specialized licenses are for minor things and not nearly as expensive as the bookmaker license…

What does the absence of a bookmaker license in Ukraine mean? This means that the Ukrainian budget annually loses 108 million hryvnia from the company. In the absence of a bookmaker license, FavBet operates in the betting industry as a lottery... No comments.

How FavBet "Feeds" Russian Occupiers

On May 23, the popular online publication Dilo published a scandalous article. 

The author of the article talked about how this office operates without a license, evading legal taxation.

In addition, it is reported that last year a criminal case was opened regarding the illegal activities of FavBet and Favorit. At that time, the investigation conducted searches of the bookmaker’s offices. Following the searches, law enforcement officers stated that these brands illegally receive excess profits from betting activities. How do they do this? The income is transferred to the accounts of foreign companies, where the beneficiary is the head of FavBet, Andriy Matyukha.

And now a very remarkable nuance. This scandalous article is no longer available in the original source. Only a virtual trace in Google remains: 

But after that, three custom-made patriotic materials from FavBet appeared on the site in a month. Probably expensive... And how much the bookmakers paid to remove the negativity, one can only guess.

As recalled in the article, "which no longer exists", about ten years ago A. Matyukha was involved in a loud scandal. Then the guys from Anonymous hacked the mailboxes of the regional MPs. It became known that the businessman-bookmaker made a very profitable offer to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. For 200,000 bucks a month, he asked for centralized "protection" of his illegal gaming empire throughout the country.

By the way, you can read more about what was in the deleted material from the Dilo publication on the Fakty website.

In fact, despite the patriotic materials that are clearly commissioned, the bookmaker has continued to operate in the online gaming markets of the Russian Federation and Belarus for the past eight years, since the start of military actions in Donbas and the annexation of Crimea.

And here are some reviews from residents of Russia, where FavBet allegedly never worked...

The rates in rubles speak for themselves. 

And finally

In addition to all of the above, gambling enthusiasts should know that the bookmaker "FavBet" are scammers who cynically profit from inexperienced players. They promise mountains of gold, while gradually luring money from their clients. Let’s not be unfounded, here are some illustrative real reviews.

- "Scam casino": they will take everything you let them win and then they will "eat" the money.

- Fraudsters and swindlers: it is impossible to withdraw money, the company has no office. Never deal with "Favorit".

- They brazenly lie and squeeze out winnings: the most unreliable bookmaker’s office in the CIS. I do not recommend it to anyone. They cheat you out of large sums of money.