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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
One of Ukraine’s most dynamic online casinos — Cosmobet — is formally owned by Mykhailo Zborovskyi, whom the media present as a “successful IT entrepreneur,” a visionary, and a reformer of the gambling market. However, behind the public image of a supposedly 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 year a newcomer appeared on Ukraine’s gambling market — Cosmobet. The online casino quickly obtained a license, launched a large advertising campaign, and by the summer of 2024 year it was confidently gaining momentum. The company 'Neurolink,' which received the license and owns the Cosmobet trademark, reported nearly 218 million UAH in revenue in its 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 experience in IT.” Everything looks good, neat, and... suspiciously smooth.
Who is Mykhailo Zborovskyi and what does Russia have to do with this
In Ukrainian business circles, Mykhailo Zborovskyi only became known after the casino was registered. Before that — no public projects, no investments, no real evidence of the claimed experience.
According to Opendatabot data, sole proprietor Zborovskyi registered only in 2020. His declared activity is “programming.” Previously he did not own any significant companies, was not involved in large transactions, and certainly did not invest millions in gambling.
However, in 2023 he became the ultimate beneficiary of LLC 'Neoplay,' and later of LLC 'Neurolink,' which received the state gambling license. On paper, he contributed 30 million UAH of authorized capital, paid for the license — and from that moment became the “owner” of the casino. Not bad for someone without a business history, right? Spoiler — since May 2025 Zborovskyi again returned to being a simple sole proprietor, but more on that below.
If you dig deeper, it turns out Cosmobet is not such a “Ukrainian” project. In almost every independent investigation (Antikor, Slidstvo.Info, Antimafia.se) the name Serhii Tokariev appears — a Russian businessman, owner of gambling networks, previously associated with the Cosmolot brand. When pressure mounted on Cosmolot, Tokariev transferred assets, re-registered the platform — and presented it as a new structure with a new face.
Background: Tokariev Serhii Oleksandrovych. Owner of Cosmolot casino, friend of Minister of Digital Transformation Fedorov, and at the same time a holder of a Russian passport. In 2018 he was added to sanctions lists for financing the Donbas people’s jamahiriya, in which he was supposed to remain until 2021, but in 2020 he received an “amnesty” from the new authorities.
That is how Mykhailo Zborovskyi appeared on the scene. But documents, testimonies, and ownership structure tell the opposite story: Cosmobet is not a new platform but a continuation of the old scheme, only with a new facade. Alongside Cosmobet’s launch, an intensive media campaign began to shape Zborovskyi’s image. Google started to fill with pseudo-interviews on English-language sites with dubious traffic (BaronBlakeslee, TheComfortCenter); articles about “Zborovskyi’s influence on the technology market”; fake analytical reviews about his “role in the digital transformation of gambling.” All these are pieces lacking specifics, with identical wording, uploaded simultaneously to sites that have nothing to do with Ukrainian IT or gambling. Moreover — some of them were clearly uploaded retroactively.
It gets more interesting: according to LumenDatabase, a number of materials critical of Zborovskyi were removed from search results following complaints about “reputation violations.” Strangely, these removals were handled by specialized PR agencies operating out of Russia.
Interestingly, among the sites complained about by LLC 'Ivi.ru' is antikor.info, which repeatedly wrote about Zborovskyi and his role as a 'front' in Tokariev’s gambling business. For some reason Russian PR operatives turned 'Antikor' into a site that hosts pirated movie copies. The explanation is simple — a sloppily executed order to scrub a biography.
The campaign to position Mykhailo Zborovskyi as a “successful IT specialist and entrepreneur” was executed just as sloppily. This scheme is typical for pseudo-IT projects with a criminal base: there is a “clean” character (Zborovskyi) who supposedly runs the company; there are the real owners (Tokariev and his circle) who control the finances and management; there is a license issued by the Ukrainian regulator — and that’s where it ties together. Then come publications, media styling, paid articles, and reputation cleanups.
Did they decide to 'abandon' Zborovskyi?
In the end — everyone’s satisfied except journalists and the public. The casino operates, taxes are paid, the face appears “Ukrainian” — and who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes, few people care.
Officially there are no questions from law enforcement about Cosmobet or Mykhailo Zborovskyi. The authorized capital was contributed, taxes are paid, the license is issued. Yet the story about 30 million hryvnias from a “programmer” with no assets raises serious questions. No one checks the funding sources. No analysis of ultimate beneficiaries through chains of offshore entities is conducted. Publications about foreign ties (including Russian ones) are ignored.
However, the materials that Russian PR agencies so massively scrubbed did have an effect — after a series of publications in Antikor, Antimafia.se, and Repost.News, where Zborovskyi was directly called a front and a 'person for siphoning off revenues,' Tokariev was forced to 'drop' Zborovskyi.
This is confirmed by registration data of LLC 'Neurolink' and LLC 'Neoplay' — Mykhailo Zborovskyi was removed from the beneficiaries and replaced by Cypriot citizen Andrii Dobrovolskyi.
There is little information about him either, but Andrii Dobrovolskyi looks considerably more solid than Mykhailo Zborovskyi — he is listed as the owner of about a dozen various firms and charitable organizations. Still, the same story of a 'front' for more respectable people could be hiding behind this. The investigation in this direction is not finished, and it is too early to draw conclusions.
It is unlikely to be a coincidence that the owner of LLC 'Ivi.ru,' which sends complaints about publications on Zborovskyi, is the Cypriot company 'Ivi.ru Media Limited' — with clearly Russian owners.
As for the replacement of Zborovskyi with Dobrovolskyi, this is standard practice in such schemes: once a 'mask' is exposed — it is removed. A new one takes its place. And the casino continues to operate: the name stays the same, players keep depositing money, and the money goes into the same pockets.
Finally — a question directed at Ukrainian regulators and law enforcement: is it really not obvious that Zborovskyi is just a 'cover'? Or will you continue to 'bite on this provocation'? The figure of the nominal owner looks more polished in the case of Dobrovolskyi, but it also raises huge questions. Will there be answers?
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Російське казино під виглядом українського IT: Михайло Зборовський став номінальним обличчям Cosmobet Сергія Токарєва". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.
