The "redistribution" of the gambling market has begun in Ukraine

The post on the Telegram channel of journalist Yevhen Plinskyi "Dirty Games" marked the beginning of a kind of "Second Great War" in the Ukrainian gambling market. The "First Great War" started with the beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and ended in March 2023 with the loss of the long-standing gambling leader Parimatch. On 10 March 2023, the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions against the company for 50 years, effectively shutting down its operations in Ukraine.

According to the publication “Comments”, the initiator of the “second war on gambling” was the gambling brand Favbet, which can become a monopolist in gambling in Ukraine. And he can be understood, because the “prize” is tens of billions of hryvnias annually, and this is only the legal part of them.

The beginning of the war for the gambling market

The time of the official start of the “Second Great War for Gambling” in Ukraine can be considered 10 hours 14 minutes on April 18, 2024. The post on the Telegram channel of journalist Yevhem Plinskyi dates back to this time.

In his message, the journalist noted that Financial Monitoring blocked the accounts of gaming brands for a total amount of UAH 2.86 billion for 30 days. It is curious that there is no such news on the website of the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, however, the journalist’s message was picked up by many media outlets.

However, as it turned out, the morning message was only the “first sign” - then followed by a post about the problems of TM Cosmolot. In his messages, the journalist directly accused VBet of connections with the Russian Federation, money laundering and financing of terrorism.

However, he was not alone in this; for example, the anonymous Telegram channel “Joker” also published two posts on April 18 in which the brands Slotoking, 777 and SlotsCity were accused of working with the Russian Federation.

But in fact, much more such messages appeared in the information space, and they began earlier. Perhaps, the harbinger of the “Second Great War for Gambling” in Ukraine was the petition of a soldier of the 59th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Pavel Petrichenko, to limit the operation of online casinos in Ukraine due to the epidemic of gambling addiction in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to look into it, and Pavel Petrichenko died on April 16.

Gambling war participants and its initiator

Judging by the mentions in the information space, the conflict in the gambling market will affect all its main participants, which is why it can actually be called the “Great War for Gambling” or simply the “Great Redistribution”.

In 2023, the media conducted a review of the Ukrainian gambling market, and all its leaders about whom we wrote then found themselves involved in a new war. Or rather, almost everything. These are Cosmolot, VBet and those not included in the TOP 5 Slotoking , 777 and SlotsCity .

Of the “Big Five” online casinos, which control about 85% of the legal turnover in the field of gambling in Ukraine, only No. 2 – TM Favbet – was not mentioned in the “Great War for Gambling” that began on April 18.

And this is not at all surprising, since according to the sources of the Commentaries, they are the initiators of a new conflict, with a completely understandable goal - to win as many positions as possible and become not the first, but unattainable. And this position is quite understandable, because according to official data alone, the turnover of the gambling business in Ukraine is more than UAH 55 billion per year.

Big prize in the gambling market

Almost 55 billion hryvnia - this is how much the top 10 most successful gambling companies earned in 2023, according to the OpenDatabot Index. And this is only the official income of companies, although many of them, if not all, have numerous “mirror” sites that accept rates, which are not taken into account in tax reporting.

It is clear that in such conditions any “Great War for Gambling” will pay for itself, because even 1% of the gambling market won from a competitor is approximately UAH 550 million. Thus, TM Cosmolot is approximately 51% of the market or UAH 27.95 billion at the end of 2023, Favbet - 17.8% and UAH 9.8 billion, respectively.

Media, courts, law enforcement - instruments of the “Great War for Gambling”

During the great confrontation for players’ money, a lot of methods are used, but basically the tactics can be reduced to two technologies:

– informational;

– law enforcement and shipping.

We wrote above about the information tactics of waging war and even preparing for it - we began to prepare society for the need to change something in the gambling market back in March, and this became most clearly clear on April 18.

As for tactics using law enforcement, journalists do not presume to claim that the actions of security forces or courts in the gambling market were ordered by anyone, but some facts can lead to certain conclusions.

The leader of the gambling market, TM Cosmolot, began having problems with law enforcement in February 2024. Then the Bureau of Economic Security reported the seizure of UAH 700 million in online casino accounts due to tax evasion of UAH 1.2 billion. The reason for this is the existence of 30 “mirror” sites of this casino.

Although the name of the brand was not mentioned, all the circumstances correspond to the decision of the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv dated February 1, which included Spacex LLC, which holds an online casino license under the Cosmolot TM.

In turn, the Anglo-German businessman, co-owner of the Cosmolot gambling website, Arnulf Damerau, said that corrupt officials in the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and the Presidential Administration are trying to extort tens of millions of euros from him.

Casino roofs at all levels and why two deputy prime ministers and the head of KRAIL may lose their positions

It just so happens in Ukraine that any business operating with tens of billions of hryvnias cannot do without a political “roof.” The gambling business is no exception.

Deputy Prime Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov is considered one of the patrons of the gambling business.

In November 2023, a corruption scandal broke out with the theft of 62 million UAH by a group of 6 people. Among them were the head of the State Special Communications Service of Ukraine Yuriy Shchihol and his deputy Viktor Zhora, direct subordinates of Mykhailo Fedorov. Although no one directly accused the minister, as they say, a “sediment” remained, and the chair under the official was shaking.

Another possible “patron” of the gambling business, Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction - Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Alexander Kubrakov, is becoming a completely toxic person.

The destruction of the Trypillya thermal power plant near the capital by a Russian missile attack raised the question of spending UAH 9.7 billion allocated for infrastructure protection. But, as the media write , the chairman of the Restoration Agency, Mustafa Nayem, and the chairman of Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudritskyi, awarded contracts for the protection of energy facilities to Russian companies. At the same time, Mustafa Nayyem himself denies his guilt in the destruction of the Trypillya Thermal Power Plant. But by a “coincidental” coincidence, the destruction of the Trypillya Thermal Power Plant occurred on April 11, and the co-owner of one of the online casinos was detained on April 12.

And in parliament, Kubrakov’s affairs are bad - after the people’s deputy from the Servant of the People, Andriy Odarchenko, was detained while trying to bribe Mustafa Nayem, he is not the most welcome guest within the walls of the Verkhovna Rada.

And again, this must happen, at the beginning of April the Verkhovna Rada began to actively call for the liquidation of KRAIL, thereby reviving Cabinet Bill No. 9256 from May 2023.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, due to the scandal with the Trypillya Thermal Power Plant, may even lose his chair, and Mikhail Fedorov is not immune from this. It is not surprising that at a time when the company’s political “roof” was weakening, a competitor in the person of Favbet decided to strike.

Two such “coincidences” tell us why Favbet has a chance to win. Thus, as Arnulf Damerau, an Anglo-German investor and co-owner of Cosmolot, the undisputed leader of the gambling market in Ukraine, states in his column for the Financial Times, the company has been under attack from the security services for several months. This problem can be solved by transferring 50% of the company to the right people connected with the Office of the President of Ukraine.

The second fact is that the liquidation of KRAIL is actively supported by the head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Finance, People’s Deputy Danylo Hetmantsev, whose possible interests in the gambling market were written in detail by the media .