Andrey Matyukha’s Favbet: trademark in Russia, business in Belarus and tax manipulations in Ukraine

Andrey Matyukha’s Favbet: trademark in Russia, business in Belarus and tax manipulations in Ukraine

Favbet, which claimed it never did business in Russia, still holds an active trademark there, and in Belarus, it runs a company owning three trademarks that remain valid.

This is stated in a BlackBox OSINT investigation about the activities of Andrey Matyukha’s company.

According to data from the Moscow Patent Office, the Favbet trademark with international registration is currently active in Russia. It was registered personally by the owner of the Favbet group of companies, Andrey Matyukha, in March 2020, and the validity of this trademark expires on March 3, 2030. Moreover, another old-style Favbet trademark was registered in Russia from June 2014 until December 30, 2024, meaning that for three years of full-scale war, it was also not annulled.

Journalists remind us that it was precisely due to the operation of a trademark in Russia that in the spring of 2023, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on another well-known bookmaker, Parimatch, and the Supreme Court confirmed the reliability of this information when considering Parimatch’s lawsuit against the "RBK-Ukraine" online publication. Thus, investigators emphasize that this could be a basis for imposing sanctions on the bookmaker Favbet, which, besides the active trademark in Russia, still has three active trademarks in Belarus, where LLC "Favbetbel" continues to operate, having registered them, and Andrey Matyukha remains a co-founder of this company. Moreover, until February 14, 2024, Favbet held a license for bookmaker activities in Belarus.

Additionally, as journalists found out, the Favbet group of companies should have been prosecuted for conducting illegal betting activities in Ukraine until December 2022. Only then did LLC "Betting Company "Favbet" receive a license for the site favbet.ua and paid a fee of 108 million hryvnia for it, while prior to that, it continued to operate illegally through the unlicensed site favbet.com. This is confirmed by a letter from the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries to Favbet dated January 25, 2022, demanding that the bookmaker cease the operation of the site favbet.com on the territory of Ukraine.

Also, as indicated in the public investigation by BlackBox OSINT, most of the Favbet group companies in Ukraine, which today hold five KRAIL licenses, regularly report losses to the tax authorities. For example, LLC "Favorit Casino Company," which manages a casino in the Mercure Kyiv Congress hotel, demonstrates negative profits every year: in 2022, the company’s loss amounted to 91 million hryvnias, in 2023 — 96 million hryvnias, and in 2024, a report with a loss of 29 million hryvnias was also submitted for two quarters.

LLC "Favbet Game Slots," holding a license for Favbet slot machine halls, also reports losses despite growing annual revenues: regardless of the income the company received in a year, its net profit from year to year is approximately the same amount of 30 million hryvnias. This, according to investigators, indicates the minimization of Favbet’s tax liabilities and tax evasion.

It is also noted that Favbet owner Andrey Matyukha has been in Croatia since January 2022 and has not returned even once during the three years of full-scale invasion in Ukraine.