Business activity in Ukraine, which is in a state of war and partial occupation, is severely limited. In conditions of a shortage of workers, electricity, and stable markets, it is difficult to establish production and provide services. However, one industry shows explosive growth. Unfortunately, it brings no benefit to the country and the Ukrainian people – it’s the gambling business. People numb their nerves on the front with gambling. The bosses of the gambling business themselves add fuel to the fire by starting information wars against each other. The main argument: competitors’ enterprises operate in Russia or are of Russian origin. This works: Ukrainian society is very sensitive to such arguments. But are all organizers of gambling entertainment “not connected to Russia” actually not connected themselves? In this article, we will talk about the company VBet, another organizer of online casinos and betting in Ukraine. Its owners are Armenians Vage and Vigen Badalyan.
VBet is trying to eliminate competitors from the market
On October 30, 2022, a public petition was published to the President of Ukraine. Petition 22/171744-ep calls for banning all companies associated with Russia from operating in the field of gambling, lotteries, and betting. The petition was drafted by a photographer named Victoria Melyushkova. Externally, everything looks beautiful, trendy, and modern. However, it was quickly established that the author of the petition is associated with the company VBet. And the righteous anger of the patriot serves solely to free up the market for further monopolization.
This is not done to protect the people from Russian aggression but to take more money from the residents of Ukraine.
The origin of VBet itself raises questions
VBet itself has many dark spots. In the register, VBet is listed as a limited liability company “VBET Ukraine,” led by Giorgi Givishvili. Giorgi is an example of a person with a meteoric career. Between “expert evaluations” of blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency development, Givishvili was listed as the director of several obscure companies, one of which, by the time of the full-scale invasion, had citizens of Belarus as beneficiaries.
In total, since 2014, Givishvili has made a leap from being the owner of an LLC with a measly charter capital of 20 pounds to the head of the bookmaker VBet, which paid 100 million hryvnias just for the license.
The beneficiary of VBet in the registers is the citizen of Armenia Badalyan Vigen Romikovich registered in Yerevan. The founder is the company Soft Construct Limited, registered on the Isle of Man.
There are several versions of the site – vbet.ua and the mirror vbetua.com. Both sites belong to VBet, as reported by the company, which operated in Ukraine illegally.
VBetua.com is managed by the company Radon V.B. No. 126922 in the Trade Register of Curaçao).
Radon V.B. is the company that owns similar casinos worldwide. And one of them is Vbet. It was founded and is run by the same Armenian, Vigen Badalyan, who is listed as a beneficiary in the Ukrainian register. The company or rather the group of companies has been operating since 2003.
Specifically, Soft Construct Limited, along with BetConstruct, are companies that develop the entire gaming infrastructure for the Badalyan empire and other casinos and bookmakers.
If you go to the BetConstruct website, you can find mention of Soft Construct, indicating that it is the same organization that founded and manages the Ukrainian bookmaker VBet.
The site has a whole section dedicated to partners. It is in this chapter that among Badalyan’s partners, Bet and Soft Construct, along with them VBet, the Russian bookmaker Fonbet is separately noted.
But this is not the only “Russian trace” in the biography of the Armenian gambling holding. The BetConstruct website mentions cooperation with one of the oldest Russian companies, BetCity.
And on specialized sites for players, you can find a list of BetConstruct clients, some of whom accept bets from Russians.
In addition, through the company Fastex, owned by SoftConstruct (the owner is Badalyan), the Armenian gaming giant sponsors and organizes the Russian Poker Tour. That’s how they entertained the Russian audience while calling for sanctions for cooperation with the occupier.
Isn’t it a Russian trace in the affairs of a company that so militantly fights for the cleansing of everything Russian in Ukraine?
Why do such manipulations work? Because marketing and PR skilfully manage emotions – because they adopt forms that are sensitive to Ukrainians. And in the end, with VBet, we have what we have.
The Armenian gambling holding, adopting Ukrainian patriotic forms, absorbs the Ukrainian gambling business and destabilizes the situation on sensitive issues.
