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For a long time, a bookmaker called Fansport operated on the territory of Ukraine. Bets were accepted both at land-based kiosks and online on their website. In 2022, the company applied for a license to legitimize its business and get out of the gray area of the law, and already on January 21, 2022, the license was issued. Bookmaker Fansport could have become one of the few legal bookmakers in Ukraine, if the company's management had not been exposed in the process of investigating its ties to Russia. Fansport's license to conduct bookmaking activities in Ukraine was revoked on December 14 of the same year, and the site from which bets were accepted is now blocked.
Bookmaker Fansport lost its license because bookmakers operating in Ukraine cannot be connected to the Russian market in any way. Fansport, which pretended to be a Ukrainian business, actually had a more complicated history with roots in Russia.
Why do Russian companies continue to appear on the Ukrainian market?
Until 2020, betting on sports was prohibited in Ukraine. However, this did not prevent companies from working and earning multi-million profits. Bookmakers even openly advertised their services, because despite the ban, no significant actions by law enforcement agencies took place. There were so many people willing to profit from the unregulated and extremely profitable business that only the wealthiest companies broke through the dense competition. Most of these companies were Russian or had connections with Russia.
In the process of legalizing the bookmaker business, one of the established criteria was precisely the absence of ties with Russia. In the same way, the cleansing of the Ukrainian market from illegal Russian companies and their subsidiaries began.
Unfortunately, this purge is still ongoing and will continue for a long time, as companies hide their executives in an attempt to confuse the commission and create numerous mirror sites that appear more often than the authorities have time to block them.
The responsibility rests on the shoulders of the users
The Gambling and Lotteries Regulatory Commission can go on endlessly fighting illegal betting companies, but no amount of action will bring enough results if users do not prefer legal sports betting. Unfortunately, illegal betting companies have large resources and budgets to find ways to circumvent the law. So it is up to us as users to be conscious and aware. If we stop supporting illegal business with hryvnia, it will not survive in our market.
Betting on legal sites is beneficial not only for the country that receives taxes from this business, but also for the users themselves. First, a legal business is accountable to the law and may be prosecuted if it fails to fulfill its obligations. Secondly, users' personal data, including passport data and bank card access, are safe when the bookmaker operates under a license. At the same time, the risk is too great to be ignored. So the next time you want to place a bet on Ukrainian athletes, carefully check the site you plan to play on. Support only official bookmakers.
