As Parimatch Ukraine shuts down, esports teams and creators wonder how to make ends meet Parimatch UkraineParimatch has suspended all operations in Ukraine following sanctions imposed by the country\u2019s government. For those who were partnered with the betting firm in Ukraine, it is another rough blow amid the ongoing war. Parimatch Ukraine announced on March 12 that it had suspended its operations and shut down its platform after being included on a sanctions list released by the country\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, two days earlier. Parimatch was among the 287 companies that were sanctioned by Ukraine\u2019s National Security and Defence Council in relation to Russia\u2019s ongoing invasion. As a result, the betting firm has been banned from conducting business in the country for the next 50 years. All commercial partnerships have been suspended, with employees set to be laid off. \u201cThese are more than 280 companies and 120 people who, through gambling business schemes, worked against Ukraine, withdrew funds from our state and financed various Russian schemes,\u201d Zelensky said in a statement. The news caught many by surprise in Ukraine, given Parimatch\u2019s condemnation of the war. In March 2022, one week after the start of the invasion, Parimatch Tech \u2013 the company that developed the platform and marketing solutions for the Parimatch brand and that in January rebranded to GR8 Tech \u2013 pulled the franchise from Russia. That same month, it also doubled its financial assistance to Ukraine to $2 million and denounced Russia as the \u201caggressor\u201d in the war. Founded in Kyiv but currently based in Cyprus, Parimatch operates internationally in several countries. It is partnered with several football clubs, including Premier League quartet Chelsea, Leicester City, Newcastle and Aston Villa, and a number of esports organizations, most notably Team Secret and 00 Nation. For less than two weeks, B8 Esports also had a deal in place with Parimatch. The Ukrainian organization, founded in 2020 by Dota 2 legend Danil \u2018Dendi\u2019 Ishutin, officially added Parimatch to its list of partners on March 7 in replacement of another betting company, Esports Bet. Less than a week later, Parimatch\u2019s logo disappeared from B8\u2019s social media banners. \u201cWe had plans to establish a long-term partnership with Parimatch, with the goal of helping to develop esports in Ukraine, starting from March 1,\u201d Dendi told Dexerto. \u201cHowever, the recent news has come as a shock to us all. We are currently facing a financial crisis and are actively searching for resources to pay our team and partners and continue our operations.\u201d In addition to their Dota 2 roster, which competes in DPC NA Division I, B8 Esports have professional teams in CS:GO and Valorant. For now, there is nothing to suggest that Parimatch\u2019s operations outside of Ukraine will be affected by these sanctions. (Different companies own the rights to the \u2018Parimatch\u2019 brand across Europe through franchise deals). But Chelsea, for example, are reportedly reviewing their partnership with Parimatch following the news of the sanctions. 00 Nation declined to comment when contacted by Dexerto. Team Secret did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Finding alternatives to Parimatch But it\u2019s not just B8 Esports that have been left reeling from Parimatch\u2019s sudden exit from Ukraine. A number of streamers and content creators are now scrambling to find alternative revenue streams, at a time when the economic uncertainty facing the world and the ongoing war in the country have made sponsorship opportunities much harder to come by. \u201cSome esports content creators in Ukraine will lose most of their income,\u201d Oleksandr \u2018petr1k\u2019 Petryk, a CS:GO analyst and content creator with over 230,000 YouTube subscribers, told Dexerto. \u201c[But] some will be able to replace Parimatch with other bookmakers or sponsors sooner or later. \u201cI have canceled some ambitious projects, and other content creators probably have as well. Nobody expected this or was ready for it.\u201d In its statement, Parimatch Ukraine said that it is looking for a legal mechanism to refund its customers, who are owed UAH 250 million ($6.8 million), according to Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda. Parimatch added that it remains hopeful that Mr. Zelensky will review NSDC\u2019s decision, pointing out that the amount of taxes and license fees paid in 2023 amounted to UAH 485 million ($13.2 million). \u201cWe ask you to check the information that was falsified during the decision of the National Security and Defense Council and take appropriate actions regarding all unlawful violations by the Security Service of Ukraine,\u201d the betting firm said. \u201cWe are ready for public discussion, ready to answer all questions from the media and law enforcement agencies, and are ready to defend our position in court.\u201d For many Ukrainian content creators, Parimatch\u2019s shutdown has further upended their lives. Partnerships with betting companies are, according to petr1k, one of the few revenue sources available to them since the start of the war. Still, petr1k said it\u2019s a sacrifice he is willing to pay in the service of a greater good. \u201cI\u2019m sure most creators in Ukraine will be happy not to have any projects with companies somehow still connected to Russia,\u201d he said. \u201cParimatch denies that it has such connections, but Ukrainian authorities most likely have a strong reason to implement such sanctions. \u201cFrom a business point of view, Ukrainian esports is almost dead due to the ongoing war. It will be completely dead without bookmakers. The exception is NAVI since they have broken into the international market. Hard times\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Parimatch Ukraine shuts down, esports teams and creators wonder how to make ends meet Parimatch UkraineParimatch has suspended all operations in Ukraine following sanctions imposed by the country\u2019s government. For those who were partnered with the betting firm in Ukraine, it is another rough blow amid the ongoing war. Parimatch Ukraine announced on March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}