Draft exemptions through FavBet casino: how state agencies protect Andriy Matyukha’s Russian-linked business

Draft exemptions through FavBet casino: how state agencies protect Andriy Matyukha’s Russian-linked business

But the connection is real. While vans — already aptly nicknamed “Unbreakable Buses” — roam the streets of Ukrainian cities hunting for men of conscription age, employees of Ukrainian casinos have received official draft exemptions. These exemptions were formally granted by the state.

And that would be only half the problem — after all, casinos are part of the economy — if these casinos were truly part of the Ukrainian economy. But they’re not. They belong to the Russian one. What you just read isn’t some fever dream of a paranoid mind. Here’s the official decision from the Ministry of Economy granting military exemptions to these “casino front-line fighters.” Among them are representatives of the FavBet casino, owned by Andriy Matyukha.

What does Russia have to do with it? Well, the fact is, Andriy Matyukha holds a Russian passport and has Russian business partners. Here’s a photo of a Russian Federation passport issued to Andriy Valeriyovych Matyukha by the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in the Moscow region on May 24, 2022 — exactly three months after the full-scale invasion began.

Someone rather sarcastically pointed out that Matyukha clearly rushed to apply for his Russian passport — but didn’t manage to reverse it in time. After all, who could’ve predicted that “Kyiv in three days” would turn into a years-long war with developments clearly unfavorable for Andriy Matyukha?

And here’s an excerpt from Ukraine’s official state registry of legal entities, showing that one of the companies owned by Matyukha until recently had Russian co-founders. The company is Dorida Realty LLC, where his partners included Russian nationals Yuriy Sprizhitsky and Andrey Lipanov. As of now, Andriy Matyukha has withdrawn from the list of founders — but whether this move is genuine or simply cosmetic remains a big question.

But that’s not all. Andriy Matyukha’s financial and industrial group FAVBET, which includes more than 40 companies in its structure, continues to accept bets from Russian citizens and pay out their winnings — directly violating Ukrainian (and, incidentally, Russian) law.

This was proven by journalists from delo.ua, who carried out a simple experiment: they contacted the support team of FavBet, a Ukrainian gambling operator, posing as Russian citizens wanting to place bets at the casino. FavBet’s support staff kindly explained how to bypass the restrictions, place bets, and even withdraw winnings.

There’s no need to even mention that FavBet casino was present in Russia and in the so-called ORDLO (self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics) even before the full-scale invasion. By the way, its activities in Ukraine were illegal at that time — gambling was only legalized in 2020 — but for some reason, no one seemed to care. Regardless of what the so-called “DPR” and “LPR” called themselves, Ukrainian legislation still applies to them, especially since the main office of FavBet is in Kyiv. But it seems that Matyukha is allowed to do what others can’t. In Russia, the casino is more commonly known under its old name — “Favorit,” but all gambling websites quickly redirect users searching for this casino to the FavBet site.

Although it has been reported since the legalization of gambling that Andriy Matyukha holds a Russian passport and that his FavBet casino operates in Russia and the occupied territories, this seems to have only had a positive impact on his business activities. According to data from the YouControl service, last year the company “Betting Company FavBet LLC” earned nearly 10 billion hryvnias.

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But that’s not all. The Ministry of Youth and Sports signed a two-year advertising contract with Andriy Matyukha’s casino.

According to this contract, the ministry advertises the casino on all possible platforms — completely free of charge. Moreover, it cannot terminate the contract. The minister who signed the agreement, Vitaliy Guttsait, has since left his post, but the ministry is unable to break the contract — it’s explicitly stated that way. Not a bad business, wouldn’t you say?

Meanwhile, Andriy Matyukha also won a tender to supply mineral water for the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada. And he bought the right to "reserve" his most valuable croupiers and bookmakers from the honorable duty of defending the country. Officially, this is called the euphemism “economic reservation,” but the essence of the matter remains the same — this reservation is nothing more than the government selling the right to avoid mobilization.

And so, in order to allow wealthy Russian passport holders to keep profiting off poor Ukrainians for as long as possible, camouflaged "Unbreakable Buses" are cruising the country, where citizens who were unfortunate enough to end up working in Andriy Valeriyovych Matyukha’s casinos mysteriously disappear. Well, as they say — life is bad without a fool.