Gambling business leaders increased their wealth 28 times: top 10 most successful companies
9 April 2024 13:35
In 2023, the top 10 most successful gambling companies in Ukraine earned UAH 54.92 billion. This is 28 times more than a year earlier – UAH 1.94 billion. This is reported by the open data platform Opendatabot, Komersant ukrainskyi 
reports.
The Opendatabot Index includes 9 online casinos, two of which are also engaged in betting activities, and 1 lottery operator.
Theleader in the gambling business is SpaceX (known as Cosmolot ), owned by Sergey Potapov and British businessman Arnulf Damerau. The company’s revenue in 2023 exceeded the previous year’s figures by 51 times, reaching UAH 27.95 billion.
Favbet (FAVBET brand), owned by Andriy Matyukha, took thesecond place in the top list. In 2023, the company’s revenue increased by a phenomenal 425 times to UAH 9.79 billion. This is the largest increase among all gambling companies included in the Index. In addition to online casinos, the company is also engaged in betting activities.
Ukr Game Technology (PIN-UP brand) of Igor Zotko, last year’s leader of the rating, dropped to the 3rd place with revenue of UAH 3.62 billion. Overall, the company’s revenue increased 4 times over the year.
Slots U.A. by Pavlo Zhuril took thefourth place. The company owns 2 online casino brands – SLOTOKING and 777. During the year, Slots U.S.A. increased its revenue 103 times and earned UAH 3.4 billion.
Thefifth place with revenue of UAH 3.1 billion is occupied by Vbet (VBET brand), owned by Rudolf Poghosyan, a citizen of Armenia. In 2023, the business managed to increase its revenue 19 times compared to 2022. VBET generates revenue from online casinos, online poker, and betting.
Thesixth position is occupied by GameDev (SLOTS CITY brand), owned by Israeli citizen Yaakov Finkelstein. Last year, the company’s revenue totalled UAH 2.5 billion. This is 35 times more than in 2022.
Seventh place goes to First Element (F1RST brand), owned by Artem Yushkov and Sergey Belik. Last year, the company managed to increase its revenue 43 times and earned UAH 2 billion.
Limon (ChampionCasino brand), owned by Ruslan Drozdov, took the 8th position with revenue of UAH 1.42 billion. This is 357 times more than in 2022.
Theninth place goes to the online casino of Nate’s APPS (Super Gra brand), owned by a British citizen, Chubini Irakli. The company increased its revenue 55 times and earned UAH 604 million.
The Ukrainian National Lottery (UNL) was the only lottery operator included in the Index. Its revenue increased by 2.5 times last year to UAH 516 million. UNL is owned by a Chinese company founded by British businessman Foggy Michael John.
Who dropped out of the top in 2024
Lottery operator M.S.L. (MSL brand) and Volna 4444 (Slot machine halls, 4444 brand) left the Opendatabot Index rating, having received only 1.5 times more revenue in 2023.
Last year, Favorit Casino received 8% less revenue than in 2022 and dropped out of the rating. And the licence of Joker USA (JOKER brand) was cancelled by CRGL in December 2022.
It is worth noting that Pavlo Petrichenko, a soldier of the 59th Brigade, registered a petition demanding to restrict the operation of online casinos. In a few hours, it gained the required 25,000 signatures for consideration.
The author of the petition asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy to submit an urgent bill to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine that would provide for
- a ban on gambling and access to online casinos for military personnel during martial law;
- a ban on gambling advertising using the symbols of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and any symbols or objects related to war and the army, such as uniforms, helmets, machines, etc;
- a ban for charitable foundations to cooperate with gambling market participants;
- prohibition for military units to accept property in the form of charitable aid from gambling market participants or related individuals or legal entities;
- prohibition of any advertising or public references to the fact that gambling market participants provide charitable assistance to military personnel;
- prohibiting pawnshops from accepting drones, thermal imagers and other similar dual-use goods;
- obligation of Internet providers and mobile operators to block websites of illegal casinos.
The day before, Petrychenko complained that he had been trying to register a petition to restrict gambling for ten days, but it was constantly being rejected for moderation.
On 28 March, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko wrote on Telegram that nine out of 10 soldiers on the frontline have problems with casinos or betting (money betting). The MP did not specify the source of such statistics.
In 2023, Ukrainians spent almost 400 million hryvnias daily in online casinos, or more than 12 billion per month, as reported by Ekonomichna Pravda with reference to the National Bank. The military is most often affected by this industry, which then suffers from “ludomania” (gambling addiction).
It is worth noting that the number of ludomaniacs – people who have limited access to gambling facilities and participation in gambling – is growing year by year. Currently, there are 3,871 people in the register of problem gamblers in Ukraine. Over the past year, the number of problem gamblers on the list increased 8 times. It is reported by Opendatabot with reference to the data of the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRGL).
The register has existed for three years. The overwhelming majority of problem gamblers (87%) were included in the list in 2023.
Currently, Ukrainians can find themselves in the Register of problem gambling addicts in three cases
- by applying for self-restriction,
- by the decision of the CRAIL on the basis of a request for restriction from relatives,
- by a court decision.
- Thus, Ukraine has no clear statistics on the actual number of citizens with gambling addiction, and the figures from the relevant register do not reflect the full picture.
For gambling addicts in Ukraine, only temporary bans on visiting gambling venues are provided for – for a period of 6 months to 3 years. Upon expiration, these restrictions are automatically terminated.
