1XBet operates in Russia and can receive personal data of Ukrainians

An investigation by InformNapalm revealed that the 1xBet bookmaker continues to operate in Russia, although it has a license to operate in Ukraine. This threatens that the company will be able to obtain personal data of Ukrainians, which the Russian federation uses to its advantage in the war.

On July 21, volunteers of the international intelligence community InformNapalm published an article in which they say that 1xBet continues to work freely in Russia with the consent of the special services.In March, the company received a license to operate in Ukraine. Then it was said that allegedly 1XBet now does not work in Russia and has no relations with the aggressor country. The license, the volunteers say, was issued under the patronage of the first deputy chairman of the advisory and Expert Council of the Ukrainian gambling regulator Boris Baum. He is called the secret curator of gambling in Ukraine.On July 4, The Speaker of the InformNapalm community, Mikhail Makaruk, published a video in which a Russian rap artist claims under the flags of 1xBet that boys from Azov were "sitting in kindergartens bombed by the invaders in Mariupol", and Ukrainians allegedly "bombed old people, children and Poh** who" in the Donbass. The recording was made on May 29, 2022.Another confirmation of 1XBet's presence in Russia is banking operations. Payments for the bookmaker are made by MTS-Money, Sberbank of Russia, Tinkoff, Alfabank, Qiwi and other Russian banks and payment systems. The conclusions are based on data from the Russian Telegram channel Badbank. He specializes in publishing leaks about banks involved in acquiring casino payments.Volunteers from the BraveUkraine group conducted a comparative study of gambling sites and mobile applications and posted the results on Github. Among the resources studied are 1XBet and 1xstavka. The latter officially operates in the Russian Federation and, allegedly, has no connection with 1XBET. However, it turned out that the sites of the two companies are visually similar, and the resources completely coincide with the set of libraries and API services. In mobile applications of the two platforms on Android, more than 10 thousand files and a set of libraries used in APK files completely coincide. IOS apps are visually almost completely identical, with the same frameworks and libraries.Investigators suggest that 1XBet, in particular, is interested in the personal data of Ukrainians. The laws of Ukraine oblige operators to identify players.

"Gambling is a risk. People lose money. Often-a lot of money. Having a database of people with big financial problems, it is very easy to recruit agents on the ground and use them for the needs of the special services of the Russian Federation," InformNapalm says.

Details

After the scandal that broke out around the publication of a rap video in Russia under the symbols of 1xBet, Boris Baum was dismissed from the commission for the regulation of gambling and lotteries. At the same time, he remains an adviser to the deputy head of the Presidential Office, Kirill Tymoshenko.

The 1xBet license has not yet been revoked. According to the volunteers, the SBU is already investigating the situation.

Officially, 1XBet is a huge disparate structure made up of hundreds of companies around the world. This is a multi-level system of offshore enterprises. Some companies are engaged in development, some in marketing, some in finance, intellectual property, and so on. According to InformNapalm, thanks to this, 1xBet has the opportunity to conduct both legal and illegal activities, and the real owners are protected from claims of government agencies and law enforcement activities in different countries.