Holding Techiia brought the Russian bookmaker 1xBet into Ukraine - investigation

Ukrainian media suspected the Techiia holding of collaborating with 1xBet.

The Ukrainian IT holding Techiia has direct ties with the Russian bookmaker 1xBet and likely assisted it in obtaining licenses to operate in Ukraine.

This is reported in the investigation "Family ties. Who connects the Ukrainian holding Techiia with the Russian bookmaker 1xBet" by TC "Pryamiy".

As is known, Ukrainian media suspected the Techiia holding of collaborating with 1xBet. Journalists questioned the origin of the $60 million that Techiia donated to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine - this amount is the entire revenue of the company for 2021, and the co-founder of the holding Oleh Krot could not clearly explain where such money for charity came from.

This was followed by the revelation of a connection between the second co-founder Yuriy Lazebnikov and the Russian bookmaker: until 2020, Lazebnikov was the director of LLC "ME-ESTATE", owned by Serhiy Tsybin, who is currently the owner of LLC "Your betting company", which received licenses for 1xBet’s operations in Ukraine.

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"This is why the suspicion arose that it was the Ukrainian holding Techiia that could have helped bring 1xBet to Ukraine, and the $60 million donation to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine could have been a payment from the Russian bookmaker for a positive decision by the Gambling and Lotteries Regulatory Commission (KRAIL) to issue it licenses to operate in Ukraine," the publication states.

Supporting this suspicion is the fact that even after the beginning of the full-scale war, the esports company WePlay Esports, which is part of the Techiia holding, continued to cooperate with the Russian bookmaker 1xBet, which broadcast Counter Strike: Go competitions and the 5th season of the WePlay Academy League in summer and September 2022, organized by the Ukrainian esports company, and announced bets on them.

Back at the beginning of 2021, WePlay Esports gladly announced its friendship and cooperation with 1xBet. But today, Techiia denies any ties with the scandalous bookmaker.

However, as journalists discovered, even today Techiia and 1xBet have a direct family connection. The fact is that the chief lawyer of WePlay Esports is Roman Rodin, who is the brother of Oleksandr Rodin, the director of LLC "Your betting company", which received licenses for 1xBet’s operations in Ukraine. Oleksandr Rodin and Roman Rodin were both registered at the same address in Kyiv at Leonid Pervomayskyi St., 3, apt. 7, according to the investigation. Furthermore, the civil wife of the director of Ukrainian 1xBet, Diana Shapovalova, according to her Facebook page, also works in the legal department of WePlay Holding, reporting to the brother of her husband.

Roman Rodin with his wife Valeriya and Diana Shapovalova (left), the civil wife of LLC "YBC" director Oleksandr Rodin. Photo: Diana Shapovalova’s Facebook page

Journalists emphasize that after information about Techiia’s continued cooperation with 1xBet appeared in the media, all traces of WePlay Esports and announcements of its competitions began to disappear from the sites of the latter.

"Obviously, getting into a scandal, Techiia tried to remove any of their traces on 1xBet’s sites. But how can this be done without having direct contact with the Russian bookmaker and without having influence over it?" the investigation states, whose authors do not rule out that the issue of "clearing" mentions of Ukrainian esports competitions on Russian bookmaker sites could have been discussed directly at family dinners of the Rodin family.

Ivan Boyko