Recently, a series of rather peculiar events have surrounded the global casino company Soft2Bet and its owner, Uri Poliavich. For a quick refresher on who Uri Poliavich is, and what Soft2Bet does, you can refer to an excellent investigation by Investigate Europe.
Casinos operating in the legal grey zone are nothing new or extraordinary. Of course, Soft2Bet is one of the major players. Moreover, they supply turnkey solutions that allow locally connected oligarchs—often with criminal ties—to run their own white-label casinos. It’s somewhat like a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, if you’ll allow the analogy.
What makes this case truly remarkable is the cyberwarfare surrounding Soft2Bet and Uri Poliavich. They refused to address the issues raised by the Investigate Europe project and instead hunkered down in total denial, despite the solid evidence provided by investigative journalists. Rather than responding transparently, Uri Poliavich resorted to tactics that further underscore the blatantly criminal modus operandi of the Soft2Bet network.
The Soft2Bet defence follows the classic dark web playbook. Here’s what Uri Poliavich has done:
- Launched an intensive whitewashing/SEO campaign to push ‘negative’ Google results down the SERP;
- Submitted a barrage of fraudulent DMCA requests to suppress criticism;
- Paid for a series of retractions on websites that had published derivative works based on the original Investigate Europe piece.
The entire campaign to salvage Soft2Bet’s reputation likely exceeds one million GBP.
Whitewashing campaign to promote Soft2Bet and Uri Poliavich
Here is a marvel of its own – “How Soft2Bet’s CEO Uri Poliavich built an iGaming empire that thrives through charity“:
That’s kind of unfair to constrain Uri Poliavich in such a narrow field as ‘iGaming’. Probably we shall turn to wider historical horizons! My vote is Mother Teresa.
What a shame that the author of this peacock text is hidden behind the ‘collaborator’ label. We’re all guilty of that, though.
Anyway, every hour or so another text about Soft2Bet and Uri Poliavich is born. Here are some samples:
DMCA abuse in the name of Uri Poliavich has been ongoing for years
Let’s take an example. An article on the AIN.ua news site reports on a Ukrainian cyberpolice raid involving Uri Poliavich. But wait—why would the Ukrainian cyberpolice raid a Soft2Bet office in Kyiv if, according to the official Soft2Bet website, the company has no offices in Ukraine? Well, because it does. Uri Poliavich was born in the Ukrainian SSR. He recognized the potential in Ukraine: weak regulations and a cheap workforce. Perhaps that—rather than nostalgia—is why Uri Poliavich maintained an operational centre in the capital of Ukraine.
Here is the article: https://ain.ua/ru/2020/09/28/kiberpolicia-zakryla-razrabotchikov-kazino/
Now, let’s try to find it in Google. You can’t do you? And here is the Lumen (DMCA notice) explaining the reasons for retraction:
Of course this DMCA is fake. AIN.ua is a reputable media and never infringed tumblr.com copyright. The request for DMCA-based takedown was crafted by Uri Poliavich troll army.
Here is another attempt, this time directly by Soft2Bet:
Let’s get back to the article.
There is more to the article than meets the eye. In the original version, posted in 2020, there were photos of the office. The AIN.ua post was edited on May 12, 2025, and the photos are missing from the new edition.
Thanks to Web Archive and other tools we can restore them. Here they are:
Soft2Bet and Uri Poliavich never acknowledged the very existence of the Ukrainian office. Maybe because of this:
It means that Uri Poliavich operated at least 20 casinos in Ukraine illegally, without licenses and managed to attracts half a million people. The office in Kyiv was manned by 80-200 workers.
Recruitment web site states:
The Moldovan company Soft2Bet (Arax Development), with an office in Kyiv, specializes in products for the online casino industry. Its most well-known brands are Wazamba, Nomini, and Rabona. It is also known for white-label development and affiliate programs such as 7 Stars Partners and 247 Partners. As of 2020, the company had 200 employees in Ukraine.
Something strange happened to Cyberpolice site too. Here is the link to the raid report: https://cyberpolice.gov.ua/news/kiberpolicziya-prypynyla-nezakonnu-diyalnist-kompaniyi-yaka-stvoryuvala-onlajn-kazyno-3210/
White page, huh?
And here is it’s original state: https://web.archive.org/web/20201003025933/https://cyberpolice.gov.ua/news/kiberpolicziya-prypynyla-nezakonnu-diyalnist-kompaniyi-yaka-stvoryuvala-onlajn-kazyno-3210/
We have every reason to believe that both the retractions (such as AIN removing the photos) and the Ukrainian Cyberpolice’s empty page are the result of paid influence. It’s not hard to guess — that’s the most plausible explanation.
After all, what happened to the Soft2Bet’s Kyiv office after the raid? Uri Poliavich used his charity magic (remember, he rules ’empire that thrives through charity’) to reopen it. We don’t know if it still in operation at the same address but two years ago Soft2Bet office was still up and running.
