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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
As for the ownership structure, it is somewhat nested, since Neurolink GmbH is officially owned by another legal entity – Neoplay GmbH (business activity – software development, authorized capital – 300 thousand UAH). That company, in turn, is owned by an individual – Mykhailo Zborovskyi.
There is very little information about the owner of a company with revenue of 218 million UAH. While interviews with Mykhailo Zborovskyi can easily be found in the media in which he talks about his work in the IT industry and in the gambling sector in Asia, Latin America, Malta, and Curaçao, that does not clear up the outstanding questions. In particular, it remains unclear where Mykhailo Zborovskyi got at least 57,69 million UAH to pay the authorized capital of Neurolink GmbH (by law, online casinos must have at least 30 million UAH) and the annual license fee (27,69 million UAH).
The answer to the question about the 30 million UAH could, however, be quite simple – they were likely siphoned from the parent company Neoplay GmbH. According to the OpenDataBot service, Neoplay had assets of 30,3 million UAH in 2023, while the financial report for 2024 showed only 2,5 million UAH in assets and a loss of 30,6 million UAH. It therefore appears that the company’s own assets were sold or otherwise contributed to the authorized capital of Neurolink GmbH, which was founded in November 2023.
Where the roughly 27,7 million UAH needed to purchase the annual online-casino license came from remains unclear. Of course, one could assume that Mykhailo Zborovskyi earned these funds during his previous ten years of work on the markets of Asia, Latin America, and Europe; however, in 2020 a person of the same name registered as an individual entrepreneur in software development. Since Neoplay GmbH is also engaged in software development, it is very likely that the entrepreneur has been operating in Ukraine since 2020. If he therefore had the funds for the gambling business and ten years of experience, why didn’t he get into it already in 2021?
Some insights can be gained from the history of Neoplay GmbH, which was founded in July 2023. According to the registers, the company originally belonged to a certain Oleksandr Lysyi and was acquired by Zborovskyi on 8 November 2023, while Neurolink GmbH was founded on 23 November.
A person with similar details – Oleksandr Lysyi – headed Fourth Fort GmbH, and that name is no coincidence, since that company’s owner is the Belarusian citizen Andrei Lappo. At one time some media linked the online casino Cosmobet specifically to the Russian Sergey Tokarev, who allegedly also owned the online casino Cosmolot; however, that suspicion was not confirmed.
Meanwhile, the media discovered an interesting connection that could lead to another major player in the online-casino market – namely Gamedev GmbH (business activity – organization of gambling, authorized capital – 30 million UAH).
The fact is that the Cosmobet brand, which belongs to Neurolink GmbH, was registered in 2021 in the intellectual property registries at the request of businessman Ruslan Nonka. And since “Neurolink” itself only emerged in November 2023, it is obvious that the brand belonged to the businessman, who was one of the earliest co-owners of Gamedev GmbH.
The media have extensively reported on “Gamedev” and its former owners such as Ruslan Nonka and the founder and co-owner of the vodka brand Yakiv Finkelshtein (formerly Yakiv Hrybov). Even though the company was sold to a family of agricultural businessmen from the Odesa region, Yakiv Finkelshtein may still own the company and the online casinos SLOTS CITY and Beton.
Championclub – for the Championcasino of the former Lutsk deputy
Another new player, the online casino Championclub, emerged thanks to a KRAIL license in April 2024, which was granted to Malina GmbH (business activity – organization of gambling, authorized capital – 30 million UAH).
The owner of the company is Ruslan Drozdov, a resident of the Volyn region, about whom slightly more is known, although questions arise even though some answers are partly known here.
The main question remains the same – where did an individual entrepreneur for software development registered as 2014 get nearly 58 million UAH for the company’s license and authorized capital? He was, however, previously and remains a co-owner of several commercial entities; judging by Malina GmbH’s revenues of 3 million UAH in 2024, his business does not seem very successful.
In general, Ruslan Drozdov is not a newcomer to the gambling market, since he holds 14% of Limon GmbH (business activity – organization of gambling, authorized capital – 30 million UAH), which owns ChampionCasino and whose 2024 achieved gross revenue of 2,5 billion UAH.
The appearance of the same co-owner in the ownership structure of Championclub and ChampionCasino, as well as the obvious similarity of the names, clearly indicates a likeness between the two brands, and this is indeed the case. However, behind both might in reality stand not the individual entrepreneur Ruslan Drozdov but Lutsk’s “gambling king” Andriy Pokrovskyi.
The former deputy of the Lutsk City Council was long called that by the media of his hometown Lutsk even before the legalization of gambling in Ukraine. IA “Volyn News” claimed that Andriy Pokrovskyi started the gambling business through a network of entertainment establishments he owned back in the 2000s and after its ban in 2009, although he declared the cessation of activities, he had in fact not done so.
According to media reports, the illegal gambling business in Lutsk allegedly continued to be run by Andriy Pokrovskyi through a network of companies and trusted persons, among whom the name Ruslan Drozdov appears. The latter was a co-owner and director of a number of firms that belonged to or previously belonged to the deputy and persons who, according to “Volyn News,” were involved in illegal gambling activities in Lutsk in 2019.
After beginning his political journey 2015 with the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Andriy Pokrovskyi is considered one of the wealthiest people in Lutsk and was even discussed as a potential mayoral candidate. He seems, however, to have withdrawn from politics, left the Lutsk City Council in 2021, and concentrated on his business. Moreover, the income declaration for 2021, filed upon his departure from the council, included 38 real estate objects, 10 vehicles, and the rights to a computer program “Champion,” which phonetically resembles the name of the online casino that also runs on computer programs.
Thus, it can be said that while formally new players appear on the Ukrainian gambling market, old faces stand behind them. Even the sale of the four companies from the market’s TOP-10 gambling firms is largely a formality.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Geldwäsche-Drehscheibe Neoplay: Wie Mykhailo Zborovskyi das Cosmobet-Kapital vor dem Staatszugriff versteckt". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
