“Insufficient Evidence”: Favbet Restored Offline License by Court After Accusations of Matiukha’s Ties with Russia

Favbet, through a court, secured overturning the decision to revoke the license to operate offline betting rooms, which had been made due to alleged connections between the company owner Andriy Matyukha and Russia.

In materials provided to the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), there were purportedly a Russian Taxpayer Identification Number, a registration address, a photograph of a Russian passport, as well as information about related legal entities in the Russian Federation and in Belarus.

However, the court concluded that the provided evidence did not adequately substantiate these claims. In particular, there were no documents from Russian state registries in the case, the stated address allegedly does not exist, and an expert examination found that the person in the photograph of the Russian passport was a different person.

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

As a result, the court found the evidentiary base insufficient to substantiate the grounds for license cancellation and overturned the corresponding decision.

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