One of the most popular Favbet bookmakers in Ukraine today, owned by the former Russian citizen Andriy Matussi, has accumulated a number of reasons to open criminal proceedings, licenses and even sanctions against him. Despite the full -scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Favbet does not cancel its trademarks in the Russian Federation and Belarus, and in Ukraine it minimizes tax liabilities to the state. However, as long as the Ukrainian authorities of other gambling operators attracts it, the Favbet brand remains intact.
Recently, the Ukrainian media has published information that Favbet has become a new leader in the gambling market, taking this position due to the fact that previous leaders had lost their place either through sanctions or through criminal proceedings.
It is known that in the spring of 2023 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on the then leader of the bookmaker market Parimatch, as well as on a Russian player 1xbet. A few months before, the Gambling Regulation Commission and Lottery revoked the Fansport Bookmever License, and in 2024, three more market leaders began with the law-VBET bookmaker and COSMOLOT and PIN-UP.
Thus, the space for Favbet was cleared, which today has five licenses of downs to carry out its activities in Ukraine and, unlike most other operators, has no problems with law enforcement. What was suspicious: did a company that works honestly in the gambling market really in Ukraine, paying all taxes, and has no links with Russia?
To begin with, Favbet allowed itself to work illegally two years since the state legalized the gambling market in 2020. While other companies paid tens and hundreds of millions of hryvnias to the budget for licenses, Favbet continued to take rates on sports without a license until the end of 2022.
According to the official financial statements of the FAVBET BOBEKERSKERS Company LLC, 2021 graduated with a loss of UAH 31 million, and in 2022 it increased to 40 million UAH. Only in 2023, when the company already licensed, the profit "Favbeth" became positive: income amounted to UAH 9.8 billion, and net profit - UAH 1.7 billion. 
But in 2022, and in 2021, Favbet worked as actively as an online casino and as a bookmaker. Therefore, it can be assumed that somewhere the same figures of income and profit, the company had in these years, they just passed the tax.
The owner of the Favbet group is Andrei Matyukha. He founded the Bookmaker "Favorite" in 1999. It is known that a gambling business has been banned in Ukraine since 2009, but this has not been a barrier to Matyukha to continue developing his business, masking it under lotteries.
In 2013, criminal proceedings were opened on FAVBET activities. In 2016, police investigators, in the framework of criminal proceedings, established a chain of firms through which Matyukha pumped money earned on a bookmaker.
At the same time, the SBU reported the "liquidation" of the bookmaker "Favorite" through the financing of terrorist activity in eastern Ukraine. However, no attempt at law enforcement officers to hold Matyuh accountable to its logical conclusion.
In 2013, the hackers from the International Anonymous group broke the mailboxes of the Party of Regions deputies, including a letter from Matyukha, in which he complained that he was forced to pay $ 150,000 to law enforcement monthly.
Apparently, the proposal was accepted - Matyukhi halls continued to work, and he never found himself on the dock. Perhaps today, the Favbet owner manages to negotiate with the authorities, because his business, despite the issue of his transparency, does not suffer any attacks by law enforcement.
