Business

Half of Ukraine’s top casinos in 2024 will make losses despite market growth

In 2024, the gambling business in Ukraine showed an alarming trend – almost half of the largest casinos ended the year with losses, and the total revenue of the industry grew by only 1%. This is evidenced by the Opendatabot Index, which includes 10 key market players, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports

Market leaders earned UAH 55.6 billion – an increase of only 1%

Over the past year, 10 leading companies in the Ukrainian gambling sector earned a total revenue of 55.57 billion UAH. This is only 1% more than in 2023. This year’s Index includes 9 online casinos (three of which also conduct betting activities) and 1 lottery operator. Four out of ten companies changed owners.

Only 6 out of 10 companies finished 2024 with a profit – a total of UAH 4.34 billion. For comparison, in 2023, all 10 companies were profitable and earned UAH 7.25 billion.

Who made it to the top: new leaders and record holders

1. Favbet is a new market leader

Favbet (FAVBET) took the first place in the ranking.

Its revenue doubled over the year to UAH 21.32 billion. This is 38% of the total revenue of market leaders. At the same time, profit decreased by 20% to UAH 1.38 billion. At the end of 2024, the company changed ownership: Andriy Matyukha was replaced by his son Dmytro.

2. Slots U.S.A. (Betking/777)

Slots U.S.A. (online casino 777 and SLOTOKING, which changed its name to Betking) took the second place and increased its revenue by 3.6 times to UAH 12.4 billion. The company also received the largest profit among all: uAH 2.55 billion. This is 13 times more than in 2023. At the end of 2024, the company owned by Pavlo Zhurilo also received a betting license.

3. Super Gra

Nate’s APPS (Super Gra brand) became the record holder in terms of revenue growth – 7.7 times (up to UAH 4.68 billion). Profit also increased 5.7 times to UAH 139 million.

The company is owned by a British citizen, Chubini Irakli. The company moved up from 9th to 4th place in the ranking.

4. ChampionCasino

The revenue of Lemon (ChampionCasino brand) increased by 1.8 times to UAH 2.54 billion. Last year, the company, owned by Andriy Pokrovsky, made a profit of UAH 174 million.

5. SLOTOR777

The young company Starbloom Gaming (SLOTOR777 brand), which was established in 2023, also made it to the list of leaders with revenue of UAH 814 million and profit of UAH 27 million. The owner is Volodymyr Naumets.

6. UNL Company (Ukrainian National Lottery)

UNL (Ukrainian National Lottery) is the only lottery operator included in this year’s Index. Over the year, the company’s revenue grew 1.5 times to UAH 866 million, and profit increased almost 6 times to UAH 56 million.

Who lost positions or suffered losses

SLOTS CITY

GameDev (SLOTS CITY brand), whose revenue grew 2.8 times to UAH 6.98 billion, ended the year with a loss of UAH 793 million.

In September, the company changed its owner – Pavel Chiklikchi replaced the Israeli beneficiary Yaakov Finkelstein.

F1rst

First Element (F1rst) increased its revenue by 27% to UAH 2.54 billion, but suffered a loss of UAH 2.57 million.

In March 2025, the company changed owners.

Cosmolot

SpaceX (Cosmolot brand) lost its leadership and reduced its revenue by 25 times (to UAH 1.12 billion) and incurred UAH 906 million in losses.

In October 2024, it was acquired by the American holding Nevada Gaming, which currently owns the company together with German citizen Arnulf Neumann-Damerau.

VBET

VBET (VBET brand) reduced its revenue by 26% to UAH 2.29 billion and suffered losses of UAH 425 million last year. The company is owned by Armenian citizen Rudolf Poghosyan.

PIN-UP

Ukr Game Technology (PIN-UP) left this year’s rating as its revenue halved (UAH 1.97 billion) and its profit decreased by 2.7 times (UAH 584 million).

As a reminder, on February 14, the State Bureau of Investigation detained the director of PIN-UP online casino, which is suspected of laundering Russian money. The detainee is charged with aiding the enemy.

Top 10 Ukrainian gambling companies according to the Opendatabot Index (2025)

Gambling business increases tax revenues

It should be noted that the gambling business paid UAH 5.4 billion in taxes to the budget in the first quarter of 2025. This is 20% more than in the same period of 2024 and 143 times more than in the same period of 2021.

Starting from 2024, the use of cash registers (RRO/PTR) was introduced for gambling businesses. In January-February 2025, the amount of revenue generated by cash registers/PTRs amounted to UAH 8.5 billion.

It is worth reminding that the gambling business in Ukraine came out of the shadows in 2020 when the Law “On State Regulation of Activities on Organization and Conduct of Gambling” (No. 768-IX) was adopted. However, full-fledged de-shadowing began in 2021, when companies started obtaining licenses and paying taxes.

Elimination of CRAIL

In December 2024, the Verkhovna Rada voted to liquidate KRAIL. The main reasons were accusations of corruption, inefficiency, political bias, and, worst of all, suspicions of cooperation with operators linked to Russian business. Law enforcement reports mentioned cases of issuing licenses to companies that acted in the interests of Russian online casinos, which became a critical factor amid the war with Russia.

The purpose of the PlayCity agency

The newly created agency is to exercise full control over the gambling and lottery sector in Ukraine. The main tasks are to ensure transparency, fairness, efficiency, and digitalization of regulatory processes. This includes automating the issuance of licenses, creating an open register of operators, and introducing mechanisms that will allow the state to receive real tax revenues from the market.

Organizational structure

The Agency will be accountable to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and will be coordinated through the Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. This indicates that PlayCity is planned to be built as a digital, technological body with high standards of transparency and accountability. In 2025, the agency will operate within the funding provided for the liquidated KRAIL, and the staff will include 61 employees, which may indicate an attempt to create a compact, efficient team.

Expected changes in the market

The launch of PlayCity is part of the government’s broader strategy to de-shadow the gambling business. It is expected that the new structure will allow for better detection and blocking of illegal operators, introduction of strict control over compliance with market rules, and increased tax discipline. It is also important that the agency’s digital mechanisms should ensure full traceability of financial flows, which will become a barrier to corruption and abuse.

The main tasks of the new institution will be:

• regulation of the gambling market;
• supervision of compliance with the law by operators;
• introduction of modern digital tools to control the turnover of funds;
• establishing transparent rules of the market;
• protection of players’ rights and prevention of gambling addiction.

It is expected that the agency will have more autonomy in personnel decisions, have a transparent mechanism for forming the management and will closely cooperate with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the State Tax Service.

Risks and challenges

Despite the ambitious plans, challenges remain. These include resistance from old market players who are used to operating in the shadows, as well as the risk of political pressure on the new structure. It is important that PlayCity remains independent in its decision-making and acts exclusively in the interests of the state and society.

The Cabinet of Ministers hopes that the reboot of regulation will help to

• increase budget revenues (according to various estimates, up to UAH 10-15 billion per year)
• ensure fair and equal rules for all market players
• increase the responsibility of operators for violations;
• reduce the influence of the shadow sector, especially in the online segment;
• introduce more effective tools to combat ludomania (gambling addiction), including the creation of a register of persons who have limited access to gambling services.

If the government succeeds in implementing the announced reforms, it will be a step forward in the fight against shadow schemes, improve the investment climate in the industry, and turn gambling from a source of corruption into a source of budget revenues.

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