"Existing evidence is insufficient": Favbet restored its offline license through the courts after accusations of Matyukha's ties to Russia

Favbet, through a court, achieved the cancellation of the decision to revoke the license to operate offline venues, which was issued due to claimed connections of the company owner Andriy Matyukha with Russia.

In the materials provided to the State Bureau of Investigation, there were allegedly a Russian taxpayer identification number, registration address, a photograph of a Russian passport, as well as information about related legal entities in the Russian Federation and Belarus.

However, the court concluded that the provided evidence did not substantiate these statements properly. Specifically, there were no documents from Russian state registries in the case, the listed address effectively does not exist according to the court, and an expert examination found that the person depicted in the photograph on the Russian passport is a different person.

The court also drew attention to the status of the companies mentioned in the materials: the Russian enterprise had been liquidated in 2019, and the Belarusian company ceased gambling activities in 2022.

As a result, the court found the evidentiary basis insufficient to substantiate the grounds for license revocation and canceled the corresponding decision.

Thus, the story of the 'Russian trace' of Matyukha, which became the basis for a sanctions decision against Favbet, did not receive sufficient documentary confirmation in court. At the same time, the court decision concerns the sufficiency of evidence for license revocation, not the definitive establishment of the absence of any connections of Matyukha or his business with the Russian Federation.