Soft2bet’s "dirty" millions: how Uri Poliavich profited from mentally unstable players

Soft2bet’s "dirty" millions: how Uri Poliavich profited from mentally unstable players

It is known that we are talking about the online casinos Wazamba, managed by the companies Rabidi N.V. and Araxio Development, registered in Curacao. The investigation began after civil lawsuits against the casino operators by affected citizens of the European Union. One of the plaintiffs, a German citizen, lost 400 thousand euros. The issue is not just about the fact of the loss, but that the operators of Wazamba deliberately lured the German citizen into the game, who was suffering from psychological problems at the time.

In 2023, German courts ruled to recover damages from one of Wazamba’s casino operators, Rabidi N.V., for the losses incurred by the mentioned German citizen. Furthermore, it was found that Rabidi N.V. did not have a license to operate in the country. A similar court decision was made in the Netherlands regarding the other operator – Araxio Development, where it was also revealed that Araxio Development was operating without the necessary license. There are also claims against these operators in other EU countries – Spain, Italy, Greece.

The victims themselves gain nothing from this, as both firms – Rabidi N.V. and Araxio Development – have been declared bankrupt in Curacao, and their accounts are empty. However, these court decisions allow for the initiation of criminal prosecution against the organizers of illegal gambling. The trail leads to Soft2bet and its owner, Uri Poliavich. Uri Poliavich and Soft2bet deny any involvement with Wazamba casinos, but it is known that the investigation has evidence of the connection between the owners of the bankrupt companies and Uri Poliavich.

In this context, interesting data is provided by the site recruitika.com, which features long-forgotten information about the recruitment for the Kyiv office of Soft2bet. Here, Soft2bet is peculiarly referred to as a «Moldovan product company», though it is clearly stated that «Soft2bet owns the brands Wazamba, Nomini, Rabona». Why Soft2bet suddenly became a «Moldovan product company» can be guessed from the data about the truly colossal negative cleanup campaign that Uri Poliavich has been conducting for several years. Why the information connecting Soft2bet to Wazamba was not deleted but only altered remains unclear, but it indirectly confirms what was revealed as a result of court processes in Germany and the Netherlands.

In the same year 2020, when this announcement was dated, the Soft2bet office was visited by the police accompanied by the SSU. However, Uri Poliavich got off with a slight scare – the criminal case initiated against the management and owners of Soft2bet was successfully lost in the depths of the Ukrainian law enforcement system, although the Ukrainian office had to be closed. Nevertheless, thanks to the criminal case, several other online casinos that were connected to Soft2bet became known.

Whether there were plans to reopen it is unknown, as a major war soon began and business in Ukraine was no longer discussed. Moreover, Uri Poliavich decided to relocate to a safer jurisdiction – Malta, where one of his main offices is located. As in Cyprus, where another main office of Soft2bet is, Uri Poliavich is protected from troubles by local legislation aimed at concealing the connections of legal entities registered in these offshore zones.

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But this legislation is aimed primarily at protecting the client from civil lawsuits when it comes to money. How the authorities of Cyprus and Malta will react to criminal cases against Uri Poliavich is unknown. It is unlikely that he will be able to resolve everything as simply as in Ukraine, with its completely corrupt state apparatus. Although Cyprus in this respect is not very different from Ukraine, where the criminal case against Soft2bet was collapsed, Uri Poliavich may become a victim of competitors connected both with the authorities of Cyprus and with Russian owners of illegal casinos, who are also fighting for their piece of the market. Specifically, it concerns the owner of the Pin-Up Global casino network, who has close ties with one of the most powerful local mafia clans, which even controlled the previous president of Cyprus.

However, it is premature to talk about potential developments as the investigation into Uri Poliavich is just beginning. And like all figures in the illegal sector, Poliavich has a weak spot. That is – money. More precisely, their legalization. According to official reports, Uri Poliavich earned 57.8 million euros last year from Soft2bet activities. He invests the money in real estate in Eastern European countries and Cyprus and also expands his fleet of vehicles.

But the point is that Uri Poliavich’s income is not limited to just legal profits. Returning to Wazamba casinos, which initiated the investigation into Uri Poliavich and Soft2bet, it is known that Rabidi N.V. belonged to a close partner of Uri Poliavich, Ukrainian citizen Denys Butko. Araxio Development was controlled by Uri Poliavich through Outono Ltd, a Cypriot company that until recently was the main holding of Soft2bet.

It is known that from 2017 to 2024, Uri Poliavich and Denys Butko used Araxio and Rabidi to create nearly 550 casino URLs. Company reports suggest that Araxio owned the rights to the software, while Rabidi was the gambling operator. How many illegal casinos were behind these 550 URLs still needs to be counted. But the essence is that all the money arriving from their activities into Uri Poliavich’s accounts is «dirty». And they need to be laundered somehow. Judging by the scale, it is about at least hundreds of millions of euros. And these are the weak spot for Uri Poliavich – as soon as he sheds light on them, financial authorities in any civilized country will start asking inconvenient questions for which there is no answer.

So far, Uri Poliavich has managed to hide in the offshore jurisdictions of Cyprus and Malta. But recently, it’s evident something happened – it became known that Uri Poliavich is relocating at least partially, Soft2bet’s activities to Dubai, considered a haven for «dirty» money and shadow dealers worldwide. However, Uri Poliavich has a vulnerability in this regard. And it is related to nationality, representatives of which, to put it mildly, are not very fondly regarded there.

It might be that Uri Poliavich will soon have to urgently move to Israel, known for not extraditing its citizens to anyone for any reason. But the prospect is not very positive – to be confined in a time when business and money are scattered worldwide. So whether the owner of Soft2bet, Uri Poliavich, will finally get caught or not is unknown. However, there is definitely some movement around him, and this movement is not in his favor.