Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
One of the most dynamic online casinos in Ukraine — Cosmobet — is formally owned by Mykhailo Zborovskyi, whom the media portray as a “successful IT entrepreneur,” visionary, and reformer of the gambling market. However, behind the public image of an apparently independent businessman lies another reality: Zborovskyi effectively serves as a cover for the real people and interests behind the casino.
At the end of 2023, a newcomer appeared on the Ukrainian gambling market — Cosmobet. The online casino quickly obtained a license, launched a large advertising campaign, and by summer 2024 it was gaining momentum. The company “Neuralink,” which received the license and owns the Cosmobet trademark, declared almost 218 million UAH in revenue in its very first year of operation.
On all official platforms, the face of the project is Mykhailo Zborovskyi. He gives interviews, comments on trends, writes columns about “responsible gambling,” and talks about his “10 years of IT experience.” Everything looks good, neat, and… suspiciously smooth.
Who is Mykhailo Zborovskyi and what does Russia have to do with it
In the Ukrainian business environment, News about Mykhailo Zborovskyi only surfaced after the casino was registered. Before that — no public projects, no investments, and no real confirmation of the claimed experience.
According to data from Opendatabot, sole entrepreneur Zborovskyi is registered only in 2020. His activity is in the field of programming. Previously he did not own any significant companies, was not involved in large deals, and certainly did not invest millions in gambling.
Yet in 2023 year he becomes the ultimate beneficiary of LLC “Neoplai,” and later — of LLC “Neuralink,” which receives a state license for gambling. According to documents, he contributes 30 million UAH to the charter capital, pays for the license — and from that moment becomes the “owner” of the casino. Not bad for a person with no business history, right? Looking ahead — since May 2025, Zborovskyi became just another sole proprietor, but more on that below.
If you dig deeper, it turns out: Cosmobet is not such a “Ukrainian” project after all. In almost all independent investigations (Anticor, Slidstvo.Info, Antimafia.se) the name of Sergey Tokarev surfaces — a Russian businessman, owner of a gambling network, previously connected with the Cosmolot brand. When pressure began on Cosmolot, Tokarev moved the assets, re-registered the platform — and presented it as a new structure with a new face.
Note: Sergey Tokarev, Alexandrovich. Owner of Cosmolot casino, ally of the Minister of Digital Transformation, and at the same time holder of a Russian passport. In 2018 year he was included in sanctions lists for financing the so‑called “people’s jamahiriya” of Donbas, in which he was supposed to remain until 2021, but in 2020 he received amnesty from the new authorities.
Thus, Mykhailo Zborovskyi appeared on the scene. But documents, testimonies, and the ownership structure speak to the opposite: Cosmobet is not a new platform, but a continuation of an old scheme with a new facade. Parallel to Cosmobet’s launch, an intensive media campaign began to build Zborovskyi’s image. On Google, pseudo-interviews on English-language sites with dubious traffic appeared en masse (BaronBlakeslee, TheComfortCenter); articles about “Zborovskyi’s influence on the tech market”; fake analytical reviews about his “role in digital transformation of gambling.” All of this is material without specifics, with identical phrasing, uploaded simultaneously to sites that have nothing to do with Ukrainian IT or gambling. Moreover — some of them were clearly backdated.
Next — more interesting: according to LumenDatabase, a number of pieces criticizing Zborovskyi were removed from search results after complaints about “reputation violations.” And for some reason this cleanup is handled by specialized PR agencies that operate from Russia.
Interestingly, among the sites that LLC “Ivi.ru” complains about is antikor.info, which repeatedly wrote about Zborovskyi and his role as the “face” of Tokarev’s gambling business. Only Russian PR people turned antikor into a site that hosts pirated movie copies. The explanation is simple — shoddy order to wipe out the biography.
Similarly shoddily executed is the order to position Mykhailo Zborovskyi as a “successful IT specialist and entrepreneur.” This scheme is typical for pseudo‑IT projects with a criminal base: there is a “clean” figure (Zborovskyi) who apparently runs the company; there are real owners (Tokarev and his circle) who hold finances and control; there is a license issued by the Ukrainian regulator — and that’s it. Then — publications, media presentation, commissioned articles, reputation cleanup.
Was Zborovskyi decided to be “dumped”?
In plain terms — everyone is satisfied except journalists and society. The casino operates, taxes are paid, the face is “Ukrainian” — and who is behind the scenes pulling the strings hardly interests anyone.
Officially, there are no inquiries from law enforcement into Cosmobet and Mykhailo Zborovskyi. The authorized capital is contributed, taxes are paid, the license is issued. But the story of 30 million hryvnias from a “programmer” without assets raises serious questions. No one checks the sources of funding. The analysis of ultimate beneficiaries through offshore chains is not conducted. Publications about foreign connections (including Russian) are ignored.
Nevertheless, the material that the Russian PR agency has mass‑cleansed still had an effect — after a series of publications in Antikor, Antimafia.se, and Repost.News where Zborovskyi is explicitly called a “face” and a “personality for laundering income,” Tokarev was forced to “dump” Zborovskyi.
This is confirmed by the registration data of Neuralink LLC and Neopley LLC — Mykhailo Zborovskyi has been removed from the beneficiaries, and in his place a Cypriot citizen Andriy Dobrovolskyi has appeared.
Information about him is not abundant either, but Andriy Dobrovolskyi appears considerably more solid than Mykhailo Zborovskyi — he is listed as the owner of about a dozen various firms and charitable organizations. However, this may also hide the same “face” story for respectable people. For now, the investigation in this direction is not finished and it is too early to draw conclusions.
Nevertheless, it is unlikely a coincidence that the owner of LLC “Ivi.ru,” which sends complaints about articles on Zborovskyi, is the Cypriot company “Ivi.ru Media Limited.” With clearly Russian owners.
As for the replacement of Zborovskyi with Dobrovolskyi, in such schemes this is standard practice: as soon as the “mask” is exposed, it is removed. In its place comes a new one. And the casino continues to operate: the name remains, players keep depositing money, money goes into the same pockets.
And finally — a question I want to ask directly to Ukrainian regulators and law enforcement: isn’t it obvious that Zborovskyi is just a “cover”? Or will you still “fall for this provocation”? In the case of Dobrovolskyi, the nominal figure looks more solid, but it also raises huge questions. Will there be answers?
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Російське казино під маскою українського IT: Михайло Зборовський став «фунтом» Cosmobet Сергія Токарєва". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
