Cosmobet and “visionary” Mikhail Zborovsky: media mask for old Russian schemes

At the end of 2023, a newcomer appeared in the Ukrainian gambling market — Cosmobet. The online casino quickly obtained a license, launched a massive advertising campaign, and by the summer of 2024 it was gaining momentum confidently. The company «NeuroLink», which obtained the license and owns the Cosmobet trademark, declared almost 218 million UAH in revenue in its first year of operation.

On all official platforms, the face of the project is Mikhail Zborovsky. He gives interviews, comments on trends, writes columns about «responsible gambling», and talks about his «10 years of experience in IT». Everything looks nice, neat, and... suspiciously smooth.

Who is Mikhail Zborovsky and what does Russia have to do with it

In the Ukrainian business environment, Mikhail Zborovsky was only heard of after the casino’s registration. Before that — no public projects, no investments, no real confirmations of the declared experience.

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According to Opendatabot data, Zborovskyi’s sole proprietorship was registered only in 2020, under the «activities in the field of programming». Previously, he did not own any significant companies, was not involved in major deals, and even less — did not invest millions in gambling.

Yet in 2023, he became the ultimate beneficiary of LLC «Neoplay», and later — LLC «NeuroLink», which received the state gambling license. According to documents, he contributed 30 million UAH to the statutory capital, paid for the license — and from that moment became the «owner» of the casino. Not bad for a man without a business history, right? Fast forward to May 2025, Zborovskyi once again became a simple sole proprietor, but more on that below.

When digging deeper, it turns out: Cosmobet — is not such an «Ukrainian» project. Practically in all independent investigations (Antikor, Investigation.Info, Antimafia.se) the name Sergey Tokarev emerges — a Russian businessman, owner of gambling networks, previously associated with the brand Cosmolot. When pressure started on Cosmolot, Tokarev withdrew assets, re-registered the platform — and presented it as a new structure with a new face.

Reference: Sergey Tokarev. Owner of the Cosmolot casino, friend of the Minister of Digital Transformation Fedorov, and at the same time a holder of a Russian passport. In 2018, included in sanction lists for financing the people’s republics of Donbas, in which he was supposed to remain until 2021, but in 2020 received an «amnesty» from the new authorities.

This is how Mikhail Zborovsky appeared on the scene. But documents, testimonials, and the ownership structure tell a different story: Cosmobet — is not a new platform but a continuation of the old scheme. Only with a new façade. Simultaneously with the launch of Cosmobet, an intensive media campaign began to shape the image of Zborovskyi. Pseudo-interviews on English-language sites with questionable traffic (BaronBlakeslee, TheComfortCenter) began to appear en masse on Google; articles on «Zborovskyi’s impact on the tech market»; fake analytical reviews about his «role in the digital transformation of gambling». All this — materials without specifics, with identical formulations, loaded simultaneously on sites unrelated to Ukrainian IT or gambling. Moreover, some of them were clearly backdated.

Further — more interesting: according to LumenDatabase data, a number of materials criticizing Zborovskyi were removed from search results due to complaints about «reputation damage». For some reason, specialized PR agencies working from Russia are engaged in this cleanup.

Interestingly, in the list of sites that LLC «Ivi.ru» complains about, there is the antikor.info site, which has repeatedly written about Zborovskyi and his role as «front» in Tokarev’s gambling business. Only for some reason, Russian PR people made «Antikor» a site hosting pirated movie copies. However, the explanation here is simple — shoddy cleanup of the biography.

Similarly shoddy is the order to position Mikhail Zborovsky as a «successful IT guy and entrepreneur». This scheme is typical for pseudo-IT projects with a criminal base: there is a «clean» person (Zborovskyi) who supposedly runs the company; there are real owners (Tokarev and his entourage) who control finances and management; there is a license issued by the Ukrainian regulator — and everything is tied to this. Then — publications, media coverage, ordered articles, reputation cleanup.

Did they decide to «dump» Zborovskyi?

In the dry residue — everyone is satisfied, except journalists and society. The casino operates, tax is paid, the face is «Ukrainian» — and whoever runs things behind the scenes, no one really cares about.

Officially, law enforcement has no questions for Cosmobet or Mikhail Zborovsky. The authorized capital is deposited, tax is paid, license is arranged. But at the same time, the story of 30 million UAH from a «programmer» without assets raises serious questions. Nobody checks the sources of funding. There is no analysis of ultimate beneficiaries through offshore chains. Publications about foreign links (including Russian) are ignored.

However, the materials, which the Russian PR agency is cleaning so massively, still had their effect — after a series of publications in Antikor, Antimafia.se, and Repost.News, where Zborovskyi is directly called a front man and a «persona for diverting funds», Tokarev was forced to «dump» Zborovskyi.

This is confirmed by the registration data of LLC «NeuroLink» and LLC «Neoplay» - Mikhail Zborovsky was removed from beneficiaries, replaced by a Cypriot citizen named Andrii Dobrovolskyi.

There is also little information about him, but Andrii Dobrovolskyi looks much more solid than Mikhail Zborovsky — he is listed as the owner of about a dozen various companies and charitable organizations. However, behind this could also hide a similar «front» story for solid people. The investigation in this direction is not yet finished and it is too early to draw any conclusions.

However, it is hardly a coincidence that the owner of LLC «Ivi.ru», which sends complaints about the publications concerning Zborovskyi, is a Cypriot company «Ivi.ru Media Limited». With clearly Russian owners.

As for replacing Zborovskyi with Dobrovolskyi, in such schemes this is the standard practice: as soon as the «mask» is exposed — it is removed. A new one comes in its place. And the casino continues to operate: the name remains, players continue to deposit money, funds go into the same pockets.

And finally — a question I would like to directly address to Ukrainian regulators and law enforcement: is it really not visible that Zborovskyi — is just a «cover»? Or will you continue to «take this bait»? In the case of Dobrovolskyi, the figure of the nominal looks more qualitatively but it raises huge questions as well. Will there be any answers to these?