The gambling market regulator PlayCity has initiated the procedure for the liquidation of the betting company Favbet’s license — after years of violations, leniency, and de facto ignoring of legal requirements.

The formal reasons are well known: use of illegal software without a B2B license, chronic delays in player payouts, and untimely payment of license fees. For this, the company has already been fined 9 million UAH, but even after the sanctions, Favbet did not stop operating under its old schemes.

However, the key problem is much deeper than «technical violations». Among Favbet’s beneficiaries is Andriy Matyukha — a businessman with a Russian passport. Amid a full-scale war, this fact appears not just scandalous, but unacceptable: a company with a direct connection to a citizen of the aggressor state has been earning on the Ukrainian market for years under the guise of a «legal bookmaker».

Separately, attention should be drawn to Favbet’s international activities. Despite statements about winding down operations in countries linked to Russia, the company maintains an active presence in Belarus. There operates the structure «Favbetbel», which has registered several Favbet trademarks with validity periods until 2028–2029 and previously held a full bookmaker license. This is not a random «tail of the past», but a documented corporate infrastructure designed for long-term operations in an RF ally country.

Thus, the story of Favbet is not a one-time conflict with the regulator or a set of random violations. It is an example of a systemic business that has operated for years on the edge or beyond the law, maintained ties with Russia and Belarus, and continued to generate profits in Ukraine.

PlayCity’s decision to launch the license liquidation procedure is a belated but principled step. Now the question is not whether violations occurred — they are documented. The question is different: whether there will be enough political will to see this case through to the end, or whether Favbet will once again vanish into backroom deals. Because this story is no longer about gambling games, but about who has the right to earn in Ukraine during wartime — and by what rules.