The owner of 1xBet either died or not, but his business lives on in Russia

Sergey Karshkov, co-founder of the 1xBet bookmaker banned in Russia, has died in Switzerland. Her “daughter” in the country is the bookmaker “1xBet”. The legal entity of the brand has recently been renamed, but its only founder is still JSC “Konstruktor” from Saratov. – The day before, Karshkov went to Switzerland for a checkup. But during the procedures, the MRI contrast fluid led to an allergic reaction. After that, the co-founder of 1xBet fell into a coma and died, – the Baza TV channel reports, citing a friend Pavel Muntyan (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation). True, the media immediately clarify that there is no other evidence of what happened.

A native of the Kiev region, Mr. Karshkov is known for the fact that, together with Roman Semiokhin and Dmitry Kazorin, he founded the future betting giant in Bryansk at the end of the 2000s. Now 1xBet is considered one of the largest betting companies in the world.

However, for the past few years, businessmen have been hiding abroad and, in particular, in Cyprus: in Russia they have been put on the international wanted list due to a criminal case on the illegal organization of gambling on the Internet.

“According to the TFR, from 2014 to 2019, while in Bryansk, they developed software for gambling and played it without a license, earning a total of 63 billion rubles,” Baza clarifies.

The first conviction in the 1xBet case was handed down in Bryansk in October 2021. Olesya Mospanova, the manager of the city network Bookmaker Pub, was sentenced to three years in a penal colony with a fine of 800,000 rubles and a suspended sentence due to the presence of a child under 14 years of age.

Insiders also report that Roman Semiokhin and his associates allegedly invested the withdrawn billions in the construction of housing and offices in Cyprus, planning to place their headquarters in one of them.

Last summer, bookmakers were again ostracized in Russia for supporting Ukraine – they transferred 1 million euros to support “Ukrainian citizens” and 60 million euros to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, the Ukrainian authorities still canceled the license of Your Betting Company LLC, the Ukrainian legal entity 1xBet, to accept sports bets and operate an online casino, accusing businessmen of having ties with Russia.

In Russia, the legal “daughter” of “1xBet” is called the bookmaker 1Xbet. The operator has been officially accepting bets in Russia since 2010. In addition to working online, it has a network of betting points – more than 800 points throughout the country, in the Saratov region it has six such points.

Trademarks “1Xstavka” and “1X”, derivatives from them, as well as three licenses are registered for the Bryansk LLC “Bookmaker Pub”. Previously, 87.9% of the company’s shares were owned by the Cypriot offshore Ehrlich, the nominal beneficiary of which is a local lawyer. The remaining 12.1% belonged to Dmitry Kazorin, who, according to RBC, received Cypriot citizenship in 2016.

As BV wrote, in June last year, the composition of the founders changed: the Saratov JSC “Konstruktor” became the only founder. In early December, the company was renamed – now it is called Stavka ru LLC.

JSC, since its founding in 2014, has been headed by Ekaterina Semenova, who, as an individual entrepreneur, continues to repair computers and printers. She was also listed as the beneficial owner in the 2020 financial auditors’ report. The Checko portal reported that in June last year, she withdrew from the founders. Since November, the only founder of the joint-stock company is Albina Semiokhina, probably. On the same dates, she lost her position as director of the Bryansk Investcom LLC, the only founder of which is 1xBet co-founder Roman Semiokhin.

The revenue of LLC “Stavka Ru” last year increased by 35%, to 23.7 billion rubles. Net profit increased by 51% to RUB 11.6 billion. The proceeds of JSC “Konstruktor” are still not shown, the loss is 384 thousand rubles.

Moreover, Stavka ru may have problems with the withdrawal of money: in May, the company filed a lawsuit against the St. Petersburg LLC NPO MOBILE CARD. It disputes the latter’s decision to suspend accepting live bet transfers.