“Gambling oligarch” Andriy Matyukha with a Russian passport and Favbet serving Putin

14 апреля 2025
Ігор Шульга
2212

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“Gambling oligarch” Andriy Matyukha with a Russian passport and Favbet serving Putin

Favbet, also known as Favorit, Favorit-Sport, with countless other names, is the brainchild of Andriy Matyukha, a gambling oligarch in Ukraine and Russia. In Russia, he is part of the company Fonbet, which, by the way, donates money to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

But don’t be envious! In Ukraine, Andriy Valeriyovych Matyukha and Favbet also donate money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It’s so sweet, so folksy: sponsoring both warring parties, helping them go bankrupt in exchange for miserable handouts, writes the London media in a major gambling investigation. And there’s no need to single out Andriy Matyukha as the sole evil: this evil is everywhere and has many names. But if we don’t focus on each one, they will all escape accountability. Andriy Matyukha, holding a Russian passport, has long since become an agent of the aggressor in Ukraine.

The UK media have no doubts that Andriy Matyukha and his Favbet have been working for Russia for many years.

In January 2024, it became known that Andriy Matyukha bought the Voda.ua trademark from its founder Dmytro Nikiforov. Water under this brand is extracted from the "Mizun" spring in the Dolyna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. With the coming of the "Servant of the People" party to power, journalists noticed that Voda.ua began to appear on the tables of deputies and ministers of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Verkhovna Rada.

Andriy Matyukha and his family are officially owners of several companies associated with the online casino Favbet since the early 2000s. These include companies like "Favorit Bet," "Favorit Jackpot," "Planet of Sports," "Bookmaker Office Favbet," etc. He also owns the catering establishments "Maracuja" and "Viller," as well as the elite goods supermarket "Deyli Market" in Obolon. Previously, there was a store for very important persons here in Ukraine before Good Wine appeared.

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Victoria Skrynchenko, who is registered to Matyukha at the same address and, with some information, is his wife, is also among the owners of the listed companies. Moreover, she controls the aesthetic medicine clinic "Esthetic Life" in the same Obolon district. And, at first glance, nothing indicates a connection with the Russians.

Andriy Matyukha loves billions and Russian silence

However, until 2016, when Russia had already annexed Crimea and invaded the Ukrainian Donbass, Andriy Matyukha was a founder of another company – LLC Dorida Realty. The company specializes in retail in grocery stores. It was created by Matyukha jointly with citizens of the Russian Federation – Andrei Lipanov and Yurii Sprizhitskyi. Although Andriy Matyukha left the founders’ list of “Dorida Realty” in June 2016, his Russian business partners remained beneficiaries as of September 2022. And this is the first thread that connects the owner of Favbet Andriy Matyukha with the renters.

Moreover, in the spring of 2022, during the peak of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Delo.ua conducted an investigation and found out that despite Favbet’s official statements about a complete exit from the Russian and Belarusian markets, the company continued to allow Russians to register on its sites and even collect winnings. The scheme for withdrawing money was complex – the player had to state that he was not a Russian citizen and had a card from a non-Russian bank. But, given these two conditions, hypothetical Vasily Petrov from Moscow could fully use Favbet’s sites and receive winnings.

By 2023, Ukrainian media reported that Andriy Matyukha might have a Russian passport and even published its copy. However, official confirmation could not be found in official sources.

Drinking Andriy Matyukha from Voda.ua

Bookmaker Andriy Matyukha acquired not the company, but the Voda.ua trademark itself. The eponymous company, among the beneficiaries of which is Matyukha, was established only at the end of October 2023.

However, despite its young status, Voda.ua LLC managed to win a tender for supplying water to the state enterprise "Ukrservice" of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine in December 2023.

The Biography of Treason of Andriy Matyukha

Companies had to publicly comment on accusations of illegal activities — they insisted on their innocence and denied these accusations. Particularly Andriy Matyukha made efforts to deny obvious business connections with Russia.

In 2020, law enforcement again became interested in Favorit Sport — searches were conducted in the offices and homes of company employees. Initially, the fact of the searches was denied. However, later they were confirmed by the press service, which stated that they were triggered by the actions of Russian companies that were dissatisfied with the norms of the draft law "On State Regulation of Activities for the Organization and Conduct of Gambling," specifically prohibiting companies with Russian physical or legal persons as ultimate beneficiaries from operating on the Ukrainian gambling market. It’s hard to miss the clear hint at 1xBet — an aggressive player with Russian roots that’s trying to break into the Ukrainian betting market.

At the time when 1xBet managed to get a license from CRAIL, the market was essentially divided between three major players: Kosmolot, FavBet, and PariMatch. None of them would be happy with the appearance of a contender for their slice of the pie. However, it’s obvious that the most active participant in the information war against "Russian Cypriots" is FavBet from Andriy Matyukha.

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Andriy Matyukha’s "Favorite" Slam Dunks 1xBet Kondratenko

Amid disputes among gambling industry leaders about who is more associated with the aggressor country and has more rights to choose Ukrainian players, the interests of millions of Ukrainian families, whose members suffer from gambling addiction, are ignored. This is not surprising, since both bookmakers and casinos profit from them, as do the officials taxing the gambling lords.

Back in 2019, when supporters from the Zelensky administration began flirting with the idea of legalizing gambling, many foresaw it would turn into something horrific. The state budget wouldn’t have been replenished by selling licenses and collecting taxes from casinos and bookmakers, and the country wouldn’t have turned into a flourishing Las Vegas. At least partly because, behind the lobbyists of the related law, were not only ears but also horns of the mafia.

Large online casinos and bookmakers represented in Ukraine, even if they didn’t have Russian roots, historically had close ties with the aggressor country. And it seemed that on February 24, 2022, when Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities, everything had changed. What can we say about any business with Russians or in the aggressor country — it looks not only disgusting but criminal.

The accusation of collaborating with the occupiers became the main lethal argument in the war of bookmakers over the wallets of gambling slaves unleashed by them in Ukraine. On September 2, 2019, six months after the election, Zelensky gave the go-ahead for the legalization of the gambling business in general and bookmakers in particular. The public was presented with the idea that legalization would open the country’s doors to large foreign investments. However, the involvement of Boris Baum, linked to the Russian “Luzhniki” gang, in this performance, especially in leading roles, suggested that the gambling business would be legalized for Russian gangsters.

Nevertheless, experts noted even then that legalization (at least in terms of betting) benefited the two largest domestic bookmaker networks — "Pari-Match" and "Favorit" of FavBet.

What’s Behind Andriy Matyukha’s Favbet

Behind the FavBet ("Favorit," "Favorit Sport") bookmaker office stands a private entrepreneur Andriy Matyukha. During the prohibition of gambling, it also operated in Ukraine as the lottery “Toto.”

A number of companies under Andriy Matyukha’s management under the Favorit brand operated in the 2000s until the casino ban in 2009. Then the network partially transformed into "internet cafes," lotteries, sports "poker clubs," such as the Grand Victoria casino in the capital’s Obolon district. Partially, it moved into a virtual format, legalizing in jurisdictions where all regulatory "doors" for gambling were open.

Existing court decisions show that most of Matyukha’s establishments from 2009 to 2020 continued to function continuously in Ukraine. Of course, illegally.

Most of Matyukha’s group companies are registered in Kyiv at the address: 21 Marshala Tymoshenko Street, Building 3. According to information from the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries, at the beginning of this year, the group had the following licenses:

At the same time, as the publication claimed, none of the companies registered in Andriy Matyukha’s name held licenses for organizing and conducting real bookmaker activities, although separate licenses are needed for casinos, sports betting, esports, and online poker tournaments in Ukraine.

Matyukha also owns gambling sites, controlling them through the company Favorit United N.V. (121466), registered on the Caribbean island of Curacao. The managing director of this company is Ukrainian citizen Ihor Sosoniuk — a business partner of Matyukha.

This company carries out gambling activities based on a sublicense issued by one of the four licensees in Curacao — the company Antillephone N.V. and signed on behalf of Favorit United N.V. by Matyukha himself.

In turn, the Cypriot company Bintpash Ltd (registration number 359736) acts as a payment processing agent, founded by Favorit United N.V., and the director is Ihor Sosoniuk.

Ihor Sosoniuk is also the director of LLC “Planet Earth” (37047683), where from 2012 to 2016, Andriy Matyukha (90%) and Daria Matyukha (10%) were participants. The latter was the director of this company during those years.

Various Companies of Andriy Matyukha

In 2016-2018, a Belize company, Roliatto Group Ltd. (124466), became a 100% participant of LLC "Planet Earth". This company was also the applicant for one of the trademarks for goods and services — Favbet (application number m201220783).

According to the publication, Matyukha also owns the domain name favbet.com and is the ultimate beneficiary and director of companies registered in the UK: Andalidi Assets Ltd (08322630), Favbet Invest LLP (OC381256), Bet Invest Ltd. (08348255), Premier Property Invest Ltd. (08404215) and Maltese companies Favbet Holding Limited (C84426), Favbet Limited (C84427) and the online casino favbet.eu, operating under a Malta license.

According to the UK trademark registry, rights to the FAVBET brand belong to the British company Favbet Invest LLP, whose participants are two British companies — Andalidi Assets Ltd and Andalidi Invest Ltd. Both are fully controlled by Andriy Matyukha.

Reportedly, the UK company Bet Invest Ltd is engaged in software development and technical support for the group’s websites, with its administration located at the address: Kyiv, Stepana Bandery Avenue, 8.

In turn, Bet Invest Ltd is a 100% participant in two Ukrainian companies — “Atlant Triumph,” which mainly deals in computer programming, and “City Gate”. The latter is registered at the address: Stepana Bandery Avenue, 8, building 39, 39a, Kyiv.

According to the decision of the Dnipro district court of Kyiv dated September 11, 2020, in case 755/1439/16-k, the funds obtained from customers of the Favorit bookmaker office are credited to the accounts of LLC “Prime Fort,” LLC “Neuron Gold,” and then transferred to companies LLC "Planet of Sport," LLC "Sport Arena," LLC "Sphere Max".

Andriy Matyukha and Yurii Pylypenko are equal participants in LLC “Planet of Sport”. The latter is a 100% participant of LLC "Sport Arena" and director of LLC "Atlant Triumph", whose ultimate beneficiary through the British company Bet Invest Ltd, is Andriy Matyukha.

LLC "Sphere Max" belongs to Yurii Sharipov. However, from 2017 to 2020, the sole participant was LLC “Renaissance Group,” controlled by Andriy Matyukha (99%).

The sole participant and director of LLC “Prime Fort” is a Georgian citizen Irakli Dzhikiya. According to the Ukrainian intellectual property institute, from 2019 to 2020, this legal entity filed 27 trademark registration applications exclusively concerning Favbet and Favorit.

History of Andriy Matyukha’s Relations with the Police, Prosecution, and SBU

Of course, the activities of Andriy Matyukha’s semi-underground business empire periodically attracted the attention of law enforcement.

In 2014, the prosecutor’s office of the Svyatoshyn district in Kyiv organized a verification of the legality of the bookmaker office FavBet’s gambling establishments network, operating under the guise of spreading state lotteries. Within the framework of a criminal case investigation under article 203-2 of the Criminal Code (involvement in gambling activities), the law enforcement conducted a series of searches, during which about 100 units of computer equipment were confiscated.

At the end of 2016, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported the "liquidation" of Ukraine’s largest bookmaker office “Favorit”. The message claimed that the company’s activities financed terrorist activities in eastern Ukraine, which is a crime under Article 258-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – financing terrorism. During searches at 28 addresses in office premises and places of residence of people involved in the company’s activities, the law enforcement confiscated nearly a thousand units of computer equipment, documentation, gaming devices, and over seven million hryvnias in cash.

In January 2020, there were reports of another search at "Favorit Sport". According to the Kyiv prosecutor’s office, after checking the sites favbet.com and favorit.com.ua, it was established that the latter provided illegal access to gambling.

“In the course of the pre-trial investigation, it was established that a group of individuals, with the aim of obtaining additional profit under the guise of releasing and selling “Favorit Sport” lotteries and creating a corresponding site on the internet, was actually illegally conducting bookmaker activities that fall under the norms of Ukrainian legislation that prohibit gambling in Ukraine,” the statement reads.

Later, the company itself denied these statements, blaming Russian companies (1xBet) for allegedly being dissatisfied with the norms of the bill "On State Regulation of Activities for the Organization and Conduct of Gambling" and launching an informational attack.

However, despite loud searches and statements by law enforcement agencies, this gambling empire continues to exist and actively develop. Its owner Andriy Matyukha has not been held criminally liable.

In late May of this year, FavBet Matyukha faced a tough informational attack. In an article "Nothing Personal, Just Business: Ukrainian Bookmaker Favbet Doesn’t Pay Taxes and Works with Russians?" journalists convincingly accused this bookmaker office of operating without a proper license and evading taxes on a massive scale. However, in Ukrainian realities, similar accusations hardly surprise anyone, so the authors, during an "investigative experiment," discovered extremely compromising information: despite the bloody invasion of Russian troops, FavBet allegedly continues to accept bets from Russians and pays them winnings. In other words, the publication concludes that Andriy Matyukha’s company collaborates with occupants and murderers.

The investigation was quickly removed, erased, and all traces of it were lost.

On March 30, "CRAIL" issued a license for bookmaker activities to LLC "Your Bookmaker Office". According to registration data, this little company is registered to a proxy, Serhii Petrovych Tsybin. It intends to conduct its business under the well-known brand 1xBet, known to frequenters of "pirate" online cinemas.

According to a joint investigation by the InformNapalm community, the legalization of 1xBet in Ukraine was personally lobbied by the aforementioned head of the advisory-expert council of KRAYL, Boris Baum. Allegedly his long-time associate from the “Luzhniki” organized criminal group Mykhailo Spektor lobbied the interests of this bookmaker office even before Baum. One decisive factor supposedly influencing the commission’s decision to issue the license was the promise of "Your Bookmaker Office" to purchase state domestic government bonds worth half a billion hryvnias.

As mentioned earlier, FavBet of Andriy Matyukha suspected Russian competitors due to "attacks" from regulatory authorities for several years. It’s not hard to guess whom he hints at: 1xBet is probably the only conditionally Russian company stubbornly trying to legalize and firmly establish itself in Ukraine. This last part is unattainable without displacing the giant that has occupied a significant share of the Ukrainian betting market for a long time: Andriy Matyukha’s bookmaker network.

It’s worth noting separately that Matyukha’s team managed to urgently extinguish this negative spillover. As mentioned above, the original source was cleaned, as well as the reprints in first-tier internet publications. The information space was massively filled with positive stories about FavBet. Ukrainian media write about this bookmaker office as if it were President Zelensky after the start of the scale invasion of the Russian Federation — either well or very well.

Excessive PR of Andriy Matyukha

In recent months, the internet has been filled with image publications about how generously FavBet helps the army. In some places, it even seems that this bookmaker armed a battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the teeth, although in reality, the company bought only one rifle for $18,000 — it just actively advertised its contribution.

Or, very recently, FavBet’s press service was widely shouting across all possible channels that it helped the army with 30 million hryvnias. But if you read the press release carefully, it comes out to only 25 million hryvnias.

Assuming that Andriy Matyukha receives a little more than 10% of the income from all funds passing through the network, one can come to such a conclusion. It’s likely that for eight months of war, the FavBet beneficiary spent no more than 4% of the amount credited to his accounts in one month on helping the defenders and war victims.

Briefly about Andriy Matyukha’s Business

FavBet, founded by Ukrainian citizen Andriy Matyukha, operates in the countries of the former USSR but does not engage in charity despite high profits, which has drawn criticism. Investigations have shown that the company employs PR tactics of "whitewashing," falsely claiming to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces while avoiding taxes through shell companies in Russia. While FavBet complies with laws in Romania, in Ukraine it is accused of tax evasion, delaying the official registration of its activities until December 2022, and reportedly avoiding taxes amounting to around 100 million hryvnias annually. Matyukha’s business under the "Favorit" brand includes various organizations that operated illegally in Ukraine from 2009 to 2020. Despite having licenses for casino gambling and gaming activities, none of his companies had a license for bookmaking activities. Matyukha also controls gambling sites through Favorit United N.V., registered in Curaçao.

Andriy Matyukha’s British assets include the domain favbet.com and various companies such as Andalidi Assets Ltd, Favbet Invest LLP, Bet Invest Ltd., and Premier Property Invest Ltd. He also owns Maltese companies like Favbet Holding Society and Favbet Society, along with FAVBET.EU online casino under a Maltese license. The rights to the FAVBET brand in the UK belong to Favbet Invest LLP, controlled by Matyukha through Andalidi Assets Ltd and Andalidi Invest Ltd.

Bet Invest Ltd, a UK-based company, is involved in software development and technical support for the group’s websites and is located at an address in Kyiv. Matyukha’s business interests, operating in a semi-underground sphere, have attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies for many years.

In 2014, the prosecutor’s office investigated the legality of "BK Favorit" activities, seizing computer equipment. In 2016, the SBU reported the "liquidation" of "Favorit" for alleged financing of terrorism. In 2020, "Favorit Sport" underwent a raider attack for allegedly providing illegal access to gambling. The company denied these accusations, attributing them to Russian firms. Despite intense scrutiny, Matyukha’s gambling empire continues to exist.

Voda.ua – Andriy Matyukha’s Next Step

During his business career, bookmaker Andriy Matyukha has faced many challenges, from law enforcement raids to accusations of sponsoring terrorist organizations like the "LPR" and "DPR," and specific cases involving ties to Russians. Yet now, in the second year of full-scale war, although he allegedly provides frontline assistance, he remains outside law enforcement’s focus. Whether this is a cautious wartime approach by the country or perhaps Russians still having significant influence over Ukrainian authorities through the gambling business is the subject of numerous investigations. However, the fact that a person with controversial ties to the occupiers will supply water to state structures should at least raise concerns.