Russian Andriy Matyukha prefers to remain in the shadows, which is not surprising, given that his popularity is relatively low, even among his colleagues in the bookmaking business and owners of online casinos. His company "FavBet" still operates in Russia. However, Matyuha claims that this company is in no way related to him personally, it is just a coincidence of names. According to British journalists, Andriy Matyukha has diversified his business.
His last step was the acquisition of the "Voda.ua" trademark and winning the tender for its supply to Ukrainian ministries and the Verkhovna Rada. But how did he manage to achieve such success and who are his opponents, with whom he fights on an equal footing? Let's take a look at Andrii Matyukha with a Russian passport.
What is the Russian-Ukrainian company "Favorite-Sport" (FavBet)? Its main beneficiary is private entrepreneur Andrii Matyukha. In the past, he was accused of illegal gambling business, financing of terrorist groups and tax evasion through affiliated entities, including Lucky Land LLC. Relevant documentation is contained in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions. So far, Andrii Matyukha has won a contract for the supply of mineral water for the Ukrainian parliament.
In January 2024, it became known that Andriy Matyukha purchased the Voda.ua trademark from its founder, Dmytro Nikiforov. Water under this brand is extracted from the source "Mizun" in the Dolyna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. With the arrival of the "Servant of the People" party to power, journalists noted that "Voda.ua" began to appear on the desks of deputies and ministers in the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada.
Andriy Matyukha and his family are officially the owners of several companies related to the online casino "FavBet" since the early 2000s. Among them are such companies as "Favorite Bet", "Favorite Jackpot", "Planeta Sportu", "FavBet Bookmaker" and others. He also owns a number of restaurants, including "Marakuya" and "Viller", as well as the elite supermarket "Daily Market" in Obolon. Earlier, in this place, in Ukraine, there was the first store for special personalities, even before the appearance of Good Wine.
Victoria Skrynchenko, registered at the same address as Matyukha, is his wife and also owns part of the listed companies. She also manages the aesthetic medicine clinic "Esthetic Life" in the Oboloni district. At first glance, nothing indicates a connection with Russia.
Andriy Matyukha is associated with Russian business and reportedly has a Russian passport. For many years, he was the founder of Dorida Realty LLC, which is engaged in retail trade in grocery stores. This company was created by Matyukha in partnership with citizens of the Russian Federation - Andriy Lipanov and Yuriy Spryzhytskyi. Although Matyuha left the founders of Dorida Realty in 2016, his Russian business partners remained among the beneficiaries as of September 2022. This is the first connection that connects the owner of Favbet Andrii Matyukha with the tenants.
Moreover, in the spring of 2022, during the peak of Russian aggression against Ukraine, Delo.ua journalists discovered that despite Favbet's statements about a complete exit from the Russian and Belarusian markets, the company continued to allow Russians to register on its sites and even pay out winnings. Although the withdrawal scheme was complicated - the player had to state that he is not a citizen of Russia and use a card of a non-Russian bank.
By 2023, Ukrainian media reported that Andrii Matyukha may have a Russian passport and even published a copy of it, although no official confirmation of this was found in official sources.
We should also note that in December 2023, Voda Yua LLC, whose beneficiaries include Matyuha, won a tender for the supply of water for the state-owned enterprise "Ukrservice" of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine. Matyuha did not purchase the company, namely the "Voda.ua" trademark, which was founded only at the end of October 2023.
The story of Andrii Matyukha is a complex and contradictory story. Companies he is associated with have been forced to publicly respond to allegations of wrongdoing, maintaining their innocence and denying ties to Russia. Andriy Matyukha himself was especially active in trying to refute these accusations.
In 2020, law enforcement authorities renewed their interest in Favorit Sport, conducting searches of their offices and employees' homes. Initially, these searches were denied, but later they were confirmed by the press service, which explained their actions as pressure from Russian companies. They disagreed with the provisions of the draft law on restrictions on activities in the field of gambling on the Ukrainian market, especially regarding the ban on activities, the founders of which are individuals or legal entities of Russian origin. This statement clearly indicates a conflict with 1xBet, a Russian company that is trying to penetrate the Ukrainian betting market.
When 1xBet received a license from KRAIL, the market was actually divided between Kosmolot, FavBet and PariMatch. None of them was satisfied with the appearance of a new competitor. However, Andrii Matyukha's FavBet became the most active participant in the information war against the "Russian Cypriots".
The war of gambling oligarchs: Andriy Matyukha, his opponents and allies began in 2019, when Zelenskyi expressed support for the legalization of the gambling business. However, the presence of Boris Baum, associated with the Russian Luzhniki gang, raised suspicions that the legalization would take place with the participation of Russian gangsters.
This scenario raised fears that the gambling business would be legalized with the participation of Russian gangsters, which caused widespread public protest.
Even among supporters of the legalization of the gambling business, there were doubts that it would lead to the attraction of large foreign investments, since Russian companies participated in this process.
Thus, the history of Andrii Matyukha and his connection with the gambling business is a complex and multifaceted picture, including political, economic and criminal aspects.
The history of the gambling empire associated with Andrii Matyukha is a complex labyrinth of events. One of the leading companies in this field is the bookmaker FavBet (also known as "Favorite" or "Favorite Sport"), which is run by private entrepreneur Andrii Matyukha. Even during the ban on gambling in Ukraine, FavBet was active, including through the "Toto" lottery.
A number of companies controlled by Matyuha and associated with the Favorit brand operated in Ukraine from the 2000s until the ban on casinos in 2009. After that, some establishments partially turned into "Internet cafes", lotteries and sports poker clubs, also known as the casino "Grand Victoria" in Obolon. Part of the business went virtual and was legalized in jurisdictions where gambling was allowed.
Court decisions indicate that most of Matyukha's enterprises operated illegally in Ukraine from 2009 to 2020. Most of them were registered in Kyiv at the same address. Despite this, according to the Gambling and Lotteries Regulatory Commission, the group obtained licenses for various types of gambling, although not all were fully legal.
Matyuha also controls an online casino through Favorit United NV, a company registered on the island of Curacao. This company received a sublicense from one of the licensees in Curacao and operates under the management of Matyuha and his business partner Igor Sosonyuk.
Ihor Sosoniuk also plays an important role in other structures related to Matyukha, such as the Cypriot company Bintpash Ltd, which is engaged in receiving and processing payments. Thus, Andrii Matyukha's complex business network stretches across different jurisdictions and includes both real and virtual forms of gambling.
Various companies owned by Andriy Matyukh are an interesting mosaic in his business portfolio. For example, in 2016-2018, a company from Belize called Roliatto Group Ltd. (124466) became a 100 percent owner of Planeta Zemlya LLC. The same company was the applicant for one of the trademarks, namely Favbet (application number m201220783).
According to the publication, Matyuha also owns the domain name favbet.com and is the ultimate beneficiary and director of several companies registered in Great Britain, such as Andalidi Assets Ltd (08322630), Favbet Invest LLP (OC381256), Bet Invest Ltd. (08348255), Premier Property Invest Ltd. (08404215), as well as the Maltese companies Favbet Holding Limited (C84426), Favbet Limited (C84427) and online casino favbet.eu, operating under a Maltese license.
According to the British Register of Trademarks, the FAVBET brand belongs to the British company Favbet Invest LLP, which includes two other British companies - Andalidi Assets Ltd and Andalidi Invest Ltd, which are fully controlled by Matyuha.
The publication also reports that the British company Bet Invest Ltd is engaged in software development and technical support for the group's websites, and its office is located in Kyiv at Stepan Bandera Avenue, 8.
Bet Invest Ltd is also a 100 percent owner of two Ukrainian companies - "Atlant Triumph", the main direction of which is computer programming, and "City Gate", registered at the address: Stepan Bandera Avenue, 8, building 39, 39a, in Kyiv.
According to the decision of the Dnipro District Court of Kyiv dated September 11, 2020, funds received from customers of the Favorit bookmaker office are credited to the accounts of Prime Fort LLC, Neuron Gold LLC, and then transferred to the companies Planeta Sportu LLC, Sport Arena LLC ” and LLC “Sfera Max”.
"Planeta Sportu" LLC is a joint venture of Andrii Matyukha and Yuri Pylypenko, who in turn is the sole owner of "Sport Arena" LLC and the director of "Atlant Triumph" LLC. "Sfera Max" LLC is owned by Yuriy Sharipov, but in the period from 2017 to 2020, the only participant was "Renaissance Group" LLC, owned by Andriy Matyukh.
The history of Andrii Matyukha's relations with the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine constantly attracted the attention of the public.
In 2014, the prosecutor's office of the Svyatoshyn district of Kyiv started an investigation into the legality of the activities of the FavBet bookmaker's network of gambling establishments, suspected of violating legislation on the gambling business. This led to a criminal investigation and searches, which led to the seizure of a significant amount of computer equipment.
At the end of 2016, the SBU announced the "liquidation" of the largest bookmaker "Favorit", accusing it of financing terrorist activities in eastern Ukraine. Several offices and residences of the suspects were searched and materials and equipment seized.
In January 2020, the Kyiv prosecutor's office reported on a search of the "Favorite Sport" office and accused the company of illegal bookmaking activities.
However, despite the accusations and searches, Andrii Matyukha was not prosecuted. The company denied the accusations, pointing to a possible information attack by Russian competitors.
In May of the same year, an information attack was directed against FavBet, accusing it of operating without a license and tax evasion. However, this material was later removed from the Internet.
Despite all the obstacles, Matyukha's bookmaking empire continues its existence and development. The information space was quickly filled with positive stories about FavBet highlighting its successes and contributions to the betting industry.
The last months have been full of informative materials that emphasize the activities of Andrii Matyukha and his company FavBet, especially in the context of charitable assistance to the army. In some cases, it gave the impression that FavBet was supplying the armed forces of Ukraine to the teeth, although in fact the company only purchased one rifle worth $18,000 and actively promoted the event.
In addition, the press service of FavBet recently loudly announced its contribution to the army in the amount of 30 million hryvnias, although in reality the amount turned out to be less - only 25 million hryvnias, according to the press release.
Assuming that Andrii Matyukha receives only a small share of the income from the company, it can be concluded that the funds allocated to help the military and war victims amounted to no more than 4% of the total amount of income for the month.
Founded by a citizen of Ukraine Andrii Matyukha, FavBet is actively developing in the countries of the former USSR. However, despite the high profits, the company does not show a significant interest in philanthropy, which causes some criticism. Her image publications, which emphasize contributions to support the army, have faced accusations of trying to improve her image at the expense of not enough real help.
In his business, Matyuha controls several companies both in Ukraine and abroad. However, his activities, including participation in gambling and various charitable initiatives, are subject to criticism and attract the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Overall, while FavBet continues to operate, it faces allegations and mistrust that require active attention and resolution from the company and its management.
