Andrey Matyukha, a Ukrainian gambling mogul, is overshadowed by Russian criminal influences

Andrey Matyukha, a Ukrainian gambling mogul, is overshadowed by Russian criminal influences

Despite the full-scale war in Ukraine, businesses intertwined with Russia and its criminal networks continue to thrive in the shadows, aided by offshore jurisdictions and legal gaps.

At the heart of this stands FavBet’s owner, Andrey Matyukha, whose story weaves through offshore accounts, Moldovan fronts, Russian citizenship, court cases, and persistent rumors.

In May 2022 — just three months after the outbreak of the full-scale war — the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Moscow region issued Andrey Matyukha a Russian Federation passport. A photo of this document quickly spread across Ukrainian social media and Telegram channels. Naturally, Matyukha publicly declared the document a fake. Yet he never provided any legally certified denial. The Russian Interior Ministry has ignored journalists’ inquiries, while Ukrainian official databases have so far neither confirmed nor publicly disclosed any checks regarding his possible second citizenship.

But the passport is far from the only link between Andrey Matyukha and the Russian Federation. One of the long-standing points of criticism against him has been his business ties with Russian citizens through the company Dorida Realty LLC.

As of August 2025, his partners in that firm officially included Russian nationals Yuri Sprizhitsky and Andrey Lipanov. The company remains active, and experts describe Matyukha’s supposed withdrawal from the list of beneficiaries as “more formal than real.”

It is worth stressing: Dorida Realty LLC is registered in Ukraine and continues operating there — despite two Russian citizens being listed among its official owners. And yes, this is happening in 2025, in case anyone missed the point.

The explanation for this may lie in Andrey Matyukha’s connection to the Russian “Luzhnikovskaya” OCG. According to several Ukrainian bloggers and media outlets, this group — linked to Evgeny Giner and Alexander Babakov — influenced the drafting of Ukraine’s gambling legalization law through lobbyists, particularly Boris Baum.

Baum, a close friend of Davyd Arakhamia, served until 2022 as an adviser to the national gambling regulator. Critics claim he helped ensure that the “right” operators — including FavBet — secured access to the Ukrainian market. FavBet was among the very first to receive a license, a development widely attributed to this lobbying.

Boris Baum, with ties to the “Luzhnikovskaya” OCG and direct access to the President’s Office, became a key architect of the gambling legislation. His initiatives consistently aligned with the interests of FavBet and Parimatch, reinforcing suspicions that the market was tailored for these players.

Yet FavBet’s history with Russia is not distant. In the 2000s and up until 2014, it operated there under the “Favorit Sport” brand. Even after its official withdrawal, domain redirects continued steering Russian users toward FavBet resources. In 2022, journalists from delo.ua tested the system: posing as Russian citizens, they contacted FavBet support. The response was clear — they were provided with instructions on bypassing restrictions, placing bets, and withdrawing winnings. Shortly after the story’s publication, the investigation vanished from the website, though copies still circulate.

Before the full-scale invasion, FavBet was also active in the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk. This activity triggered a criminal case — No. 12016100040000990 — on charges of financing terrorism, tied to Lucky Land LLC. By 2020, however, the case stalled, coinciding with FavBet’s receipt of an official Ukrainian license.

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Ukrainian and Moldovan registries reveal a sprawling web of companies linked to Matyukha and his close associates — including Viktoria Skrynchenko, Angela and Elena Balan, and Natalia Nyamtsu. Moldovan citizens are listed as owners of firms such as Dnipro Viktoria LLC and Favorit Jackpot.

Many FavBet-related structures are hidden behind offshore fronts in Belize, Cyprus, and the UK — for example, Favbet Invest LLP in London (registered at an address associated with hundreds of offshore firms tied to Yanukovych’s entourage), BET INVEST LTD, and Cypriot entities Bagco Investments Ltd and Foyte Investments Ltd.

Amid the war, FavBet secured “economic reservations” from Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy for key staff — croupiers, bookmakers, and managers — sparking outrage on social media. At the same time, the company won government tenders, including contracts to supply bottled water (Voda.ua) to Ukraine’s Parliament and Cabinet of Ministers.

The scandal deepened when it emerged that the Ministry of Youth and Sports had signed a two-year deal with FavBet granting the company free advertising across all ministry platforms — with no option to terminate the contract.

So how exactly do the “Luzhnikovskaya” OCG fit into all this? Go back to the paragraph that explains why FavBet was among the very first to secure a gambling license — and read again who represented their interests in Ukraine, and whose friend he is. That alone may offer a partial explanation.

There may well be other reasons. But neither the authorities — who openly favor this scandalous figure — nor Andrey Matyukha himself, the figure in question, have ever provided a clear answer.

Instead, through 2024–2025, there was a systematic purge of materials mentioning Matyukha’s Russian passport, FavBet’s operations in Russia, and its ties to the “Luzhnikovskaya” OCG. Disappearing from the web were not only major investigative reports, but also photos of the passport, records about Dorida Realty, and transcripts of support chats with Russian clients.

In their place, the public narrative was flooded with press releases about FavBet Foundation’s charity campaigns — aid to the army, hospitals (including Okhmatdyt), and sports projects.

The picture surrounding Andrey Matyukha is far from clear-cut. Legally, he remains a Ukrainian citizen, publicly supports the Armed Forces, and has no officially registered business in Russia. Yet the facts — past partnerships with Russian nationals, operations in the occupied territories, a web of offshore entities, government tenders granted against the backdrop of a Russian passport — all create a persistent field for accusations of ties to Russian organized crime.

In December 2024, amid arrests of other gambling operators and shortly after reports surfaced about his possible Russian connections, Matyukha transferred his beneficiary rights in FavBet to his son, Dmitry.

Considering the sweeping purge of compromising materials and their replacement with charity-driven publicity, the scandal is unlikely to vanish. It will resurface every time the name FavBet intersects with issues of national security and Russian influence.