FavBet and the Luzhniki OCG: shadow schemes of bookmaker Andrey Matyukha and Russian influence on Ukraine’s gambling business
08.09.2025 20:10
In Ukraine, amid legislative loopholes and offshore schemes, a business with close ties to Russia and its criminal underworld is thriving.
The discussion is about the owner of the FavBet group, Andrey Matyukha — a person around whom licenses, offshore entities, Moldovan nominees, Russian passports, criminal cases, and loud rumors are intertwined.
In May 2022 — three months after the invasion — the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in the Moscow Region issued Andrey Matyukha a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. A photo of this document circulated through Ukrainian social networks and Telegram channels. Naturally, Matyukha himself publicly stated that the document was fake. But he provided no legally certified refutations. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs does not respond to journalists’ inquiries, and in Ukrainian official databases, checks for dual citizenship have not been conducted or made public.
But the passport is not all. More precisely — far from all that connects Andrey Matyukha with the Russian Federation. One of the long-standing directions of criticism against Matyukha has been his connection with Russian citizens through the company LLC "Dorida Realty". As of August 2025, his partners there included Russians Yuri Sprizhitsky and Andrey Lipanov. The firm continues to operate, and experts call Matyukha’s exit from the list of beneficiaries "more of a formal question than a factual one". It should be emphasized — LLC "Dorida Realty" is registered in Ukraine and operates there. Despite the official presence of two Russian citizens among the owners. We are talking about 2025, if anyone didn’t understand.
The explanation for this fact may be Andrey Matyukha’s connection with the Russian organized crime group "Luzhnikovskie". According to data from a number of Ukrainian bloggers and media, it is this group, associated with Evgeny Giner and Alexander Babakov, through lobbyists (in particular, Boris Baum) that had influence on the formation of the law on the legalization of the gambling business. Baum — a friend of David Arakhamia — until 2022 was part of the advisory body at the regulator and, according to critics, could have facilitated the entry of "right" operators into Ukraine, among which is FavBet.
Boris Baum, close to the "Luzhnikovskie" and a friend of David Arakhamia, was a key consultant to the Office of the President on the bill to legalize gambling. This initiative was often linked to promoting the interests of FavBet and Parimatch, including Matyukha. It was thanks to this lobby that FavBet received a license as one of the first.
Although even then it was written that FavBet in the 2000s and until 2014 operated in the Russian Federation under the brand "Favorit Sport", and after the official departure from Russia, specialized sites continue to redirect users to FavBet resources. Journalists from delo.ua in 2022 conducted an experiment: they contacted the casino’s technical support as Russian citizens wanting to place bets. The operator’s response was unambiguous — Russians were given instructions on how to bypass blocks, place a bet, and withdraw winnings. After publication, the investigation quickly disappeared from the publication’s website, but reprints were preserved.
Before the war, FavBet also operated in the ORDLO, which became the basis for criminal case No. 12016100040000990 on financing terrorism against LLC "Lucky Land". The case stalled in 2020, when FavBet received an official Ukrainian license.
In Ukrainian and Moldovan registries, a whole network of companies connected to Matyukha and his closest entourage emerges — Victoria Skrynchenko, Anzhela and Elena Balan, Natalia Nyamtsu. Moldovan citizens are registered as owners of several firms, including TOV "Dnipro Victoria" and "Favorit Jackpot".
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Part of the FavBet structures and affiliated companies are hidden behind offshore entities in Belize, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom — for example, Favbet Invest LLP in London (registered at an address linked to hundreds of "offshore" firms from Yanukovych’s entourage), BET INVEST LTD, and Cypriot Bagco Investments Ltd, Foyte Investments Ltd.
In the midst of the war, FavBet received economic reservations for key employees from the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine — croupiers, bookmakers, and managers, which caused a storm of outrage on social networks. At the same time, the company won tenders for the supply of mineral water (brand Voda.ua) to the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers.
The scandal intensified when it became known that the Ministry of Youth and Sports concluded a two-year contract with FavBet for free advertising of the casino on all its platforms, with no possibility to terminate the agreement.
How do the "Luzhnikovskie" influence all this? Go back once more to the paragraph that explains why FavBet was one of the first to receive a gambling license and read again who represents it in Ukraine and who he is friends with. Perhaps there are other explanations. But no clear answer has been heard from the authorities, who clearly favor the openly scandalous figure, nor from Andrey Matyukha himself, who is that figure.
Instead, in 2024–2025, there was a massive cleanup of publications about Matyukha’s Russian passport, FavBet’s operations in the Russian Federation, and connections with the "Luzhnikovskie". Not only investigations from major media disappeared, but also photos of the passport, materials about "Dorida Realty", and correspondence of technical support with Russians. In their place in the public agenda, news about charitable actions of the FavBet Foundation appeared — assistance to the army, hospitals (including "Okhmatdyt"), sports projects.
The picture emerging around Andrey Matyukha is far from unambiguous: legally, he remains a citizen of Ukraine, publicly helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and has no registered business in the Russian Federation. But the facts — past partnerships with Russians, operations in ORDLO, an offshore network, tenders for the authorities against the backdrop of a Russian passport — create a stable field for accusations of ties to Russian criminality.
In this context, it should be noted that in December 2024, Andrey Matyukha transferred beneficial rights to FavBet to his son Dmitry — this happened amid arrests of other gambling market operators and shortly after publications about his possible connection to Russia.
Taking into account the large-scale cleanup of compromising material and the substitution of the agenda with charitable news, the scandal is unlikely to disappear — it will return every time the name FavBet appears next to topics of national security and Russian influence.
