Mikhail Zborovskiy and Ruslan Drozdov: who protects the front men and their financial money-laundering operation behind Cosmobet and Championclub

18 августа 2026 г., 22:27

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Following the end of KRAIL’s operations, Ukraine’s gambling market has not stopped generating billions — only the brands and formal owners have changed. Behind the new brands, old connections, nominal owners and companies with unclear sources of capital continue to emerge.

We are publishing this material to remind readers who may actually own the popular online casinos Cosmobet and Championclub, where their formal owners obtained tens of millions of hryvnias, and why well-known players in Ukraine’s gambling market may be hiding behind the new names.

Although the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries has ceased operations, the licences it issued remain valid and continue to generate millions in profits for their holders. However, it remains unclear who exactly receives this money.

"Comments" decided to investigate who exactly is making money from Ukrainians through the online casinos Cosmobet and Championclub, and it turned out that finding the answer is not so simple, although officially there would appear to be no reason for questions.

Cosmobet – a Russian company or a “subsidiary” of Ukrainian GameDev

In March 2024, LLC Neurolink received a licence to launch an online casino called Cosmobet (business activity – organisation of gambling, share capital – UAH 30 million). Although the website is currently not operating, in 2024 the company generated almost UAH 218 million in revenue.

As for the ownership structure, it is somewhat complicated, as Neurolink is officially owned by another legal entity – LLC Neoplay (business activity – computer programming, share capital – UAH 300,000). The latter is owned by an individual – Mikhail Zborovskiy.

There is very little information about the owner of a company with a turnover of UAH 218 million. It is not difficult to find media interviews with Mikhail Zborovskiy in which he says that he spent more than 10 years working in IT and gambling markets in Asia, Latin America, Malta and Curaçao, but this does not eliminate the questions. In particular, where did Mikhail Zborovskiy obtain at least UAH 57.69 million to pay Neurolink’s share capital (under Ukrainian law, at least UAH 30 million for an online casino) and the annual licence fee of UAH 27.69 million?

The answer to the question of the UAH 30 million may, however, be quite simple – the money may have been transferred from the parent company, LLC Neoplay. According to OpenDataBot, in 2023 Neoplay had assets worth UAH 30.3 million, while in 2024 its financial report showed just UAH 2.5 million in assets and a loss of UAH 30.6 million. This suggests that certain assets belonging to the company may have been sold or otherwise contributed to the share capital of Neurolink, which was established in November 2023.

However, the source of almost UAH 27.7 million used to purchase the annual online casino licence remains unclear. Of course, one could assume that Mikhail Zborovskiy earned these funds during his previous 10 years of work in the markets of Asia, Latin America and Europe. However, in 2020, a person with the same full name registered an individual entrepreneur for computer programming. Since LLC Neoplay is also engaged in computer programming, it is quite possible that the businessman has been working in Ukraine since 2020. If he had the funds and 10 years of experience to enter the gambling business, why did he not do so as early as 2021?

Some information can be gleaned from the history of LLC Neoplay, established in July 2023. According to registry data, the company initially belonged to a certain Oleksandr Lysyi and was purchased by Zborovskiy on 8 November 2023. On 23 November, LLC Neurolink itself was established.

A person with the same details – Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Lysyi – previously headed LLC Chetvertsii Fort, and this name is not accidental, as its owner is Belarusian citizen Andrey Lappo. At one point, a number of media outlets linked the Cosmobet online casino itself to Russian businessman Sergey Tokarev, who was also reported to own the Cosmolot online casino, although this suspicion was not confirmed.

At the same time, the media uncovered an interesting connection that may lead to another major player in the online casino market – LLC GameDev (business activity – organisation of gambling, share capital – UAH 30 million).

The reason is that, according to intellectual property registries, the Cosmobet trademark, owned by LLC Neurolink, was registered in 2021 following an application by businessman Ruslan Nonka. Since Neurolink itself only appeared in November 2023, it is clear that before then the trademark belonged to a businessman who was one of the original co-owners of LLC GameDev.

The media wrote extensively about GameDev, its former owners, including Ruslan Nonka and vodka brand founder and co-owner Yakov Finkelstein (formerly Yakov Grybov before changing his surname). Although the company itself was sold to a family of agricultural entrepreneurs from Odesa region, Yakov Finkelstein may still own the company and the SLOTS CITY and Beton online casinos.

Championclub – a new name for the former Championcasino of a Lutsk ex-deputy

Another new player, the Championclub online casino, appeared thanks to a KRAIL licence issued in April 2024 to LLC Malyna (business activity – organisation of gambling, share capital – UAH 30 million).

The company is owned by Volyn resident Ruslan Drozdov, about whom somewhat more is known, although questions remain here as well, and some of the answers are already available.

The main question remains the same: where did an individual entrepreneur registered in 2014 for computer programming obtain almost UAH 58 million for the licence and the company’s share capital? At the same time, he has previously been and remains a co-founder of several commercial entities. Judging by the income of LLC Malyna in 2024, which amounted to just UAH 3 million, his business does not appear to be performing particularly well.

However, Ruslan Drozdov is not a newcomer to the gambling market. He owns 14% of LLC Limon (business activity – organisation of gambling, share capital – UAH 30 million), which owns the ChampionCasino online casino. In 2024, ChampionCasino generated UAH 2.5 billion in revenue.

The presence of the same co-owner in Championclub and ChampionCasino, combined with the obvious similarity in their names, clearly points to similarities between the two brands. This is indeed the case, although behind both of them may stand not individual entrepreneur Ruslan Drozdov, but Lutsk’s “gambling king” Andrey Pokrovskiy.

Local Lutsk media gave the former Lutsk City Council deputy this nickname long before gambling was legalised in Ukraine. In particular, IA Volyn News claimed that Andrey Pokrovskiy began his gambling business through a network of entertainment venues he owned back in the 2000s and, after gambling was banned in 2009, continued operating despite publicly stating that he had stopped.

According to media reports, Andrey Pokrovskiy allegedly operated illegal gambling businesses in Lutsk through a network of companies and trusted individuals, among whom Ruslan Drozdov’s surname appears. Drozdov was a co-owner and director of several companies owned or previously owned by the deputy and by individuals who, according to Volyn News, were involved in illegal gambling activities in Lutsk in 2019.

Andrey Pokrovskiy, who entered politics with Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc in 2015, is considered one of the wealthiest people in Lutsk and was even considered a candidate for mayor. However, he appears to have abandoned politics, leaving the Lutsk City Council in 2021 and focusing on business instead. His 2021 income declaration, filed when he left the city council, included 38 properties, 10 vehicles and rights to the computer programme “Champion” – a name that coincides with the online casino, which also operates using computer programmes.

Thus, although formally new players are appearing in Ukraine’s gambling market, old figures may still stand behind them. Even the sale of four companies from the TOP 10 gambling companies is, in practice, largely a formality.