Beneath the guise of conflict: how an Armenian-owned VBet with ties to Russia is seizing control of the betting industry in Ukraine
VBet online casino with Armenian origins, officially registered in Ukraine, has begun aggressively targeting its rivals. A year ago, VBet was spreading information through the media speculating about licensing
Following February 24 and the extensive aggression from Russia, the information campaign shifted its focus to trends against Russian involvement in Ukrainian business.
Such altered activity garners a clear response for understandable reasons. According to VBet, the bookmaker is among the top three genuinely Ukrainian and licensed companies in the gaming industry. The claim is striking considering that VBet is fully owned by Armenian proprietors. And, indeed, the only Ukrainian elements are the players themselves. Read about the backers of Vbet in the article on “Apostrophe”.
Request to the President — to cease operations and make way for…
October 30, 2022, a petition numbered No. 22/171744-ep. It calls for “imposing sanctions on companies associated with the aggressor state and supporting Russian business in Ukraine.”
Yet within this prominent and widely recognized narrative, the call for sanctions specifically targets businesses in the betting sector.
The majority of companies listed by the CRAIL (Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries) in the document are licensed online casinos and bookmakers in Ukraine.
It's important to note that online casinos and bookmakers were registered in Ukraine following the enactment of the Gambling Law, which emerged at President Zelensky's proposal. This law provided an opportunity for legal development of the gaming industry with tax benefits for the state and the growth of associated sectors.
Presently, the companies possess all the required licenses and contribute tens of millions of hryvnias in taxes, providing significant support during the war. They have undoubtedly been thoroughly examined by specialized authorities. Therefore, an attempt to find a Russian connection can be seen either as a display of lack of awareness, or as unfair competition and a bid to push out key market participants. But who benefits from monopolizing the market?
It is widely known that where there is a monopoly, transparency is absent. This implies that not only the business will suffer. The budget, global reputation, and economy will also suffer.
The official author is the legitimate VBet
The petition lists Melyushkova Victoria Eduardovna as the author. Victoria is a professional photographer who collaborates with New Africa Studio.
Beneath the guise of conflict: how an Armenian-owned VBet with ties to Russia is seizing control of the betting industry in Ukraine
If one examines the initiator's profile, there are no indications of interest in the betting industry or demonstration of relevant expertise. Interestingly, Vika is primarily focused on her own photography business and is relatively inactive in public engagement, particularly as an initiator of movements and petitions. However, in her communication to the President, the individual adeptly employs purportedly reliable data.
The writer's page lists the companies where she worked. The previous workplace of Victoria Melyushkova, the Business Tuning Center company, turned out to be intriguing. Their main focus was on advertising and marketing, which is their expertise for information campaigns of any level of difficulty. After looking through the page, you can see a prominent post with the company's client – the VBet bookmaker. This reveals some aspects of the bigger picture.
Beneath the facade of war: how an Armenian-owned VBet with Russian connections is expanding its influence in the gambling industry in Ukraine
Due to the close professional ties with BTC, Melyushkova was used as a formal attacker against VBet competitors, taking advantage of Ukraine's current situation. The only thing overlooked by the initiators was Victoria's employment history on her social network, which revealed the actual customer of the aggressive petition.
The Armenian branch is searching for Russian ties in Ukraine in collaboration with Russian business partners
In its business strategy, which excludes market competition, VBet itself has many questionable aspects. Who are the key players in this situation?
VBet is listed in the registry as a limited liability company “VBET Ukraine”, managed by Giorgi Givishvili. Giorgi is an example of someone with a rapidly advancing career. Alongside assessing blockchain technologies and developing cryptocurrencies, Givishvili held director roles in several obscure companies, one of which had Belarusians as the beneficiaries by the time of the full-scale invasion.
Givishvili went from being the owner of Margroup LLC with minimal authorized capital to heading the VBet bookmaker, which alone paid 100 million hryvnias for the license.
The Armenian citizen Badalyan Vigen Romikovich is the beneficiary of VBet in the registers, with registration in Yerevan. Soft Construct Limited is the founder, registered on the Isle of Man.
Even more intriguing.
There are several versions of the site – vbet.ua and mirror vbetua.com. Both sites are owned by VBet, as reported by a company that operated illegally in Ukraine.
Additionally, VBet provides a detailed guide on bypassing the ban by breaking the law, using a mirror, VPN, etc.
Upon visiting the mirror site, the footer indicates that VBetua.com is managed by Radon VB No. 126922 in the Commercial Register of Curacao.
Radon VB owns similar casinos around the world, including Vbet, which is founded and managed by the same Armenian, Vigen Badalyan, who is also listed as a beneficiary in the Ukrainian register. The company, or rather a group of companies, has been operating since 2003.
Soft Construct Limited, along with BetConstruct, develops the entire gaming infrastructure for the Badalyan empire and other casinos and bookmakers.
By visiting the BetConstruct website, you can find a mention of Soft Construct, indicating that this is the same organization that founded and manages the Ukrainian bookmaker VBet.
And here is the most interesting. The website has a whole section dedicated to partners. It is in this section that among the partners of Badalyan, Bet and Soft Construct, and together with VBet, the Russian bookmaker Fonbet is listed as a separate position.
Isn't there a Russian connection in the affairs of a company that is so aggressively fighting for the removal of everything Russian in Ukraine?
Why do such manipulations work? Because marketing and PR effectively handle emotions – because they take shapes that are sensitive for Ukrainians. And the remainder of VBet is what we have.
The Armenian gambling holding, taking on Ukrainian patriotic forms, absorbs the Ukrainian gambling business and impacts the situation on sensitive topics. And under whose political influence everyone already knows Armenia.
VBet — cooperation with the occupier
But this is not the only Russian connection in the history of the Armenian gambling holding. The BetCotstruct website discusses collaboration with one of the oldest Russian bookmakers, BetCity.
And on specialized websites for players, you can find a list of BetConstruct clients, some of which accept bets from Russians.
In addition, through Fastex, owned by SoftConstruct (owned by Badalyan), the Armenian gaming giant sponsors and organizes the Russian Poker Tour. This is how they entertained the Russian audience while calling for sanctions for cooperation with the occupier.
To make it more convenient, SoftConstruct organized the Russian Poker Tour right in Armenia, which Badalyan probably doesn't really want to clean up from the Russians.
How Vbet deceived Ukrainian football — friendship with Pavelko
VBet very aggressively entered the Ukrainian market, finding common interests with the controversial head of the Ukrainian Football Association Andriy Pavelko.
VBet ousted Favbet from the sponsorship of the Ukrainian Premier League for the summer of 2021, which in a very strange way coincided with a search in the offices of Favbet.
Initially, the Armenian office became the main sponsor of the Ukrainian championship. Later they began to sponsor the national team. VBet directly had to pay $1 million to Ukrainian clubs last season. Clubs received only 720 thousand. Other funds settled in the UAF as gratitude for such a sponsor as VBet. And it is still unknown how many corrupt contributions Pavelko personally provided to VBet in order to enter the country's football industry.
In addition, the Armenians brought their friendly company BetRadar to Ukraine, which received the betting rights of the company's clubs as a monopoly. The cost of the transaction is slightly more than $100,000. Pennies compared to the final benefit. Ukrainian football clubs have not received and will not receive anything from this agreement.
It turns out that over several years of its Ukrainian registration, the Armenian bookmaker managed to evolve from a participant in corruption schemes around football to a fighter with a Russian connection in Ukrainian business. Only such a business biography is definitely worthy of the attention of the investigating authorities, who will have enough Russian threads on the collar of VBet to tie the hands of the most scandalous online bookmaker in Ukraine.
Nikolay Tkachuk
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