Parimatch - sports betting and casino with a license (6 countries)

Meet Katerina Belorusskaya, the owner of Parimatch, with a net worth of $400 million.

Katerina Belorusskaya, 31, is the primary owner of the betting company Parimatch, founded 27 years ago by husband and wife Eduard Shvindlerman, 68, and Tatyana Belorusskaya. Katerina joined the company at 21; at 25, her parents transferred ownership of Parimatch to her, and at 31, she joined the Supervisory Board.



Belorusskaya first tried her hand at Parimatch during the period when Sergey Portnov began transforming the business. Ten years into the Portnov-Belorusskaya partnership, the company's net gaming revenue stands at $400 million. Parimatch is valued at approximately $500 million, according to Forbes. With this valuation, Kateryna Belorusskaya could be among the top thirty on the "100 Richest Ukrainians" list, with a net worth of $430 million.
This is Belorusskaya's first interview as the company's owner. Forbes spoke with her about her role at the company and is publishing a condensed and edited version of the interview.

Tell us how Parimatch started?
My father founded the company in 1994. I was four years old then. I remember the first office was near the Dynamo stadium, in some semi-basement. Parimatch is a family business. My mother, Tatyana, helped my father with everything, even working the cash register and taking bets. Sometimes my mother would take me to work with her, probably when there was no one to leave me with. I also remember students coming to the Polytechnic University and placing bets between classes.
I only came to a more conscious understanding of Parimatch in 2009, when gambling was banned in Ukraine. Our business was successful, and this market was our core, but we had to leave. At the time, we had betting shops in all major Ukrainian cities. The company didn't close and continued operating in other countries: Belarus, Russia, Georgia, and Moldova. But this was a huge shock for our family. After all, we were one of the major players in the CIS market.

How did your father get into the betting business?
My father is a professional gambler. He told me the story of how he came up with the idea. He went to Poltava on business one day and placed bets at some bookmaker there, losing $300. My father is an old-school man, principled, and always pays his debts on time. The weather was really bad that day, but he went anyway. The bookmaker was closed for renovations and refused to take his money. My father was very unhappy about this and vowed to make it better so that this wouldn't happen again. He quickly set up his own bookmaker and came up with the name Parimatch. It basically means "bet on a sports match." Things were much simpler back then, since our main product was odds. And assembling a team of mathematicians and analysts wasn't particularly difficult for him. Why? Was he a mathematician by training? Or what? In the gambling world, everyone knows each other. Actually, yes, my father has a technical education. He graduated from the Kharkiv Polytechnic, I think. I don't remember the department, but it had something to do with welding in space. However, I don't think he'd ever seen a welding machine in his life. Those kinds of departments were just popular back then.

Why did you come to work at Parimatch and what did you do before?
My parents' attitude was, "Study for now; why would you even work there?" I studied journalism at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, but I realized it wasn't for me. Studying was a bit boring; I wanted to work and immediately find some fulfilling career. In 2011, Sergey Portnov returned to Ukraine after graduating. Our fathers were friends, and I learned that Sergey had assembled a new, young team at Parimatch. I asked my dad, "Can I give it a try?" He was open to it. I started out with something very simple, just copywriting. Then I got immersed and realized, "This is my family's business!" Since then, I've been incredibly involved. Although, when I first joined Parimatch, I only knew a little about the bookmaker and the gambling.

You grew up in such an environment. Why weren't you interested?
I'm not a gambler at all; I've never gambled, and I don't gamble now. I look at this from the perspective of an entrepreneur, not a gambler. I'm a humanities person 100%.

How did you get involved in your father's business?
At first, I was looking into bookmaker cash desks in the CIS. There were about 700 of them at the time. I traveled by car to Belarus, Moldova, and Moscow. We visited all the locations and gathered information about how things were going. We spoke with clients, with territorial managers, and even stood at the cash desks ourselves, accepting bets. It was a truly immersive experience, because you were working in the field. We later used this analysis to restructure Parimatch. Sergey Portnov was mostly involved in marketing at the time, and I was focused on business development and the whole business with other countries.

What were the problems in Parimatch retail then?
I wanted to make the customer experience simpler, but the software didn't allow it. The software at the betting desk could take 15 minutes to load. Because of this, the odds would drop, and people who wanted to place a bet simply couldn't do so in time. Especially in live betting. In Belarus, it was different: every bet there goes through a system that the tax authorities check. Only then can the cashier accept the bet. Customers were upset. Everything was taking too long. At some point, we simply stopped developing retail.
Is that the only reason you got rid of retail?
Retail is also expensive and complex operationally. All those rents, territorial and regional managers, security, staff turnover. A huge structure. We chose digital because we live entirely in a mobile world. Everyone is comfortable lying on the couch at home or, excuse me, sitting on the toilet and placing bets quickly. Of course, there remains a category of people who still want to go to the checkout. For them, it's also a community. When I launched Cyprus in 2017, I noticed the local offices: terrible, smoky... And people go there, can you imagine? All these old men. Who are not our clients, so to speak.


How much investment did you and Portnov need for the digital transformation?
At the start, it was an investment, which, of course, I took from my father. Somewhere around $500,000–$600,000. But then Sergey and I reinvested. So, we basically didn't receive anything. I probably saw my first dividends in 2017.

What is your share in the company?
I am the majority owner of Parimatch. The company's management holds a combined 22%. My parents transferred ownership of the company to me during the restructuring period from 2014 to 2016.

How did the company treat you, considering that you are the owner’s daughter?
The hardest moment was the transition from the old team to the new one. We came up with new ideas, but they didn't understand us: why, why? What was my role then? It wasn't to bring any innovations. The guys did that, and I had to help them push through these decisions. After all, they trusted me more, like family. But it's not easy. How could I be sure I wasn't being taken advantage of right now? But I trusted the guys and believed in them. I still do.

You're responsible for new markets at the company. Tell us about your expansion.
We have about 20 countries. You can't really call them all businesses, because so many are startups. These are markets we enter and test. For example, we might close a new market in six months or even two months. Parimatch was wrong. When you spend money and realize "it's not working anymore," you keep pushing on because you feel bad about it. Ultimately, you invest a few more million. Now we're testing, monitoring, and if necessary, we'll exit on time. We're ready to burn $2 million on one new country when entering—just for experimentation. Although, of course, we'll spend that money together with our partner somewhere.

How do you explain Parimatch's commercial success?
First and foremost, I attribute this boost to the fact that we finally brought order to the company. This is the side of the company that's invisible, but it's no small feat. As soon as we established business processes, key people came on board. Yes, we still have problems, and they always will, of course. But we're now in the best shape we've ever been at Parimatch.
The second reason for the boost is the rebranding, which I initially rejected. I'd gotten used to my brand, and it was fine with me. When I first saw the redesign, I said, "This is terrible, something completely different! Crazy color on black!" Then I came to trust it, and now I like it. We had a whole concept developed there, and when you start to dig deeper, you understand why it's so great.

And what has changed after the rebranding?
We used to conduct focus groups in different countries, but we didn't really understand who our client was. We thought they were just minibus drivers. Then we realized that, no, they were Favbet clients. Ours, on the other hand, is more of an entrepreneur. We call him "Misha." Parimatch is a masculine brand. When we brought in Conor McGregor as our ambassador, it was such a hit! It was Sergey's idea, because he was into martial arts and watches the UFC. The partnership with the UFC also gave us a boost.

You're currently developing Parimatch as a tech company, but people still perceive you as a betting business. How do you attract developers in an overheated market?
I'm very proud that Parimatch is such a great employer today. I'm responsible for our corporate culture, values, and processes. We offer benefits that no one else in the Ukrainian market offers. For example, Tesla cars. They're leased: the company covers the majority of the cost, and the employee pays a quarter, but over a long period. What else is important? We have family days. We want employees to socialize and be friends with their families, even on weekends. If an employer cares about a person's family, and doesn't just pay a salary and provide health insurance, this will definitely retain them and make them truly loyal.
In mid-December, we'll launch an educational center, a development school for employees' children. Parimatch will reimburse them for most of the courses. Working people often don't have the time to find the right place and good teachers.

What is the overall situation with the gambling labor market?
The Ukrainian market is extremely overheated right now. Especially in IT, and we're always in need of IT specialists. But we don't want to outbid people with high salaries; ours are average. Such a race is pointless and won't generate high loyalty. Because tomorrow, Vbet or Joker Casino will come along and offer five times more. And then what? So we retain people through corporate culture. If people are happy here, the thought "there's more money there" won't even cross their minds.
Is it fair to say that Parimatch's overall brand recognition is the work of Sergei Portnov, while yours is the employer brand?
I can't take credit for this alone. The old team built it all. You see, I'm a very modest person... Really, very modest... Can I say I deserve all the credit? I can't. The team deserves all the credit. But was I the driving force behind all of this? Yes, of course I was.

What is your current role in the company?
I've been involved in charity work for the past three years, responsible for our corporate foundation. We recently became a member of the UN Global Compact. That's a really exciting step. We're also currently formulating our Sustainable Development strategy, which will help us become a public company. For example, we're ready to calculate our carbon footprint. Don't think that just because we're a tech company, we produce nothing and emit no emissions. The biggest change for us was moving our head office to Cyprus; there's a different community and a different mindset there. For them, that's the norm. Now Parimatch is ready to do the same: talk about business sustainability and responsible gambling.

How much are you willing to sell Parimatch for?
We've decided not to sell anything in the next 18-20 months, even though our valuation—Parimatch—is worth over a billion dollars. But yes, we're moving toward going public. This is my personal goal, and everyone supports it. We're already restructuring the company's processes to accommodate it. The process is complicated, so I don't yet know what form that will take. An IPO isn't necessarily necessary.

In 2017, you almost sold Parimatch.
Yes. We almost sold it then, I think for €200 million or €300 million. In 2017, we thought that price was normal. It's good that we didn't sell it.

Were there any other offers to buy the company?
Yes. But that was much later, and the conversations were very superficial. We didn't agree on a deal then, but we started seriously thinking about selling again. I remember sitting with Maxim Lyashko, and he asked me, "If you sell now, will you stay with the company or not?" And then I had an internal crisis. I realized I didn't know. Staying felt strange, but how could I leave? It was a difficult choice. Although I thought about it for a long time.

Did you find the answer to this question?
Probably not. Still not. Of course, selling is a logical option, but… I don't even want to think about it right now. Parimatch is my whole life.

Parimatch among the "right people".

Parimatch doesn't only make money from betting. According to Izmailov, betting accounted for 85% of the company's revenue in 2018–2019. The rest came from Live Casino, online slots, bets on virtual matches, and other products.

Parimatch isn't expanding into new markets solely through its own efforts. The company operates through franchises or sells brand rights. "When entering a new market, we're prepared to spend $2 million on experiments," says Belorusskaya, who oversees expansion. "We might get busted, but at least we'll try."
Parimatch is present in more than 20 countries. "We don't have time to cover the entire world ourselves; we need a local partner to push us there," says Portnov. The financial terms of the franchise are $20 million for two years, with a 20% royalty. There are also non-financial requirements: the absence of criminal ties and questionable capital, and an understanding of the bookmaker and how online business works. "A simple astronaut with money isn't suitable for us," says Portnov.

According to research firm Technavio, the global betting market will grow by 10% annually between 2021 and 2025, reaching $106 billion. Parimatch wants to be present in at least 40 countries. But not the US, notes Portnov. "No one is waiting for Ukrainian gambling representatives in America," he adds.
To achieve this ambition, Parimatch will have to accelerate its digitalization even further. "We have a strong engineering team, but it's still 51% marketing, 49% tech," says Portnov. "We need to become a tech company faster." The Belarusian company gives PM two years to achieve this goal.

Grigory Bakunov, 44, is responsible for Parimatch's tech leap. The former top manager at Russia's Yandex arrived in 2019 with a big ambition: to keep up with global market leader Bet365, with revenues of €3.5 billion. One of Bakunov's innovations is the creation of two managers in all key areas, based on the principle of "one responsible for business, the other for technology."

Parimatch employs just over 1,000 IT specialists, building a product that's easy to customize for different regions. "It's a bit like a construction kit," Bakunov explains. CTO gave his IT specialists more freedom and allowed them to make mistakes.

In 2021, Parimatch has two CEOs: Roman Sirotyan, 33, and Maksym Lyashko. Why two? It allows for faster decision-making: Lyashko is responsible for communications, legal, and finance, while Sirotyan is responsible for product and marketing. Their shared responsibility is HR. "I'm giving them exactly one year for people to forget about me," says Portnov. "Igorka as a business no longer excites me." Since 2021, he has chaired the company's supervisory board.

Meanwhile, former young reformers have found new meaning in charity. The Belarusian is developing the Parimatch Foundation, established in 2019. Portnov, in his own words, sees himself as a "DHL logistician." "I don't need the money for myself," he explains. "My role is to take money from big business and donate it to good causes."
In 10 years, Portnov and Belorusskaya believe they built a company worth over a billion dollars. Forbes's estimate is more conservative: just over half a billion.

The company's co-owners still can't imagine their lives without it. "I've thought about it for a long time, but I don't know what I'll do without Parimatch," says Belorusskaya. "I feel comfortable; it's a second home," replies Portnov, sitting in PM's new office, which occupies three floors of Kyiv's Summit business center near the Verkhovna Rada.

May 2011. The Parimatch bookmaker's headquarters are in a three-room apartment on Kyiv's Left Bank. Marketing and Digital Director Sergei Portnov is frustrated. The company is in poor shape, with EBITDA down $2 million. "Las Vegas perfectly captures the essence of the game," Portnov quips. "It shines brighter on the outside than it does on the inside." A professional poker player with a passion for Muay Thai, Portnov is not one to give up. His idea is to turn Parimatch into a major international company.



Ten years later, Parimatch (PM) has moved its business online and its head office to Cyprus. The company now employs 2,176 people. The brand is present in the UK, India, Brazil, Tanzania, Kazakhstan, and 20 other countries.
Parimatch's revenue in 2020 reached $400 million, according to Forbes, and the company's value is approximately $550 million. With this valuation, the business's main owner, Kateryna Belorusskaya, 31, could be among the 100 richest Ukrainians, with a net worth of $430 million. How did she and Portnov manage this?

Beginning. 1994–2011. In May 2011, Parimatch operated 700 bookmaker offices in Russia, Belarus, Georgia, and Moldova. Two years earlier, 200 locations in Ukraine had been forced to close due to a gambling ban. But the market was already changing: customers were getting younger and gradually shifting online. Parimatch wasn't prepared for this turn of events. "We even considered closing," recalls Portnov, 33. "Our presence online was purely nominal."
For company founder Eduard Shvindlerman, 68, and his team, the internet was a closed book. "Dad still doesn't really understand how to send text messages," says his daughter, Katerina Belorusskaya. He doesn't have much of an understanding of business, says Portnov. "But he has a good intuition—he sees right through people," he quickly clarifies.

Shvindlerman and his wife, Tatyana Belorusskaya, founded Parimatch in 1994. The first office was in a basement near the Dynamo Stadium. "I was very little, but I remember my mother taking bets at the cash register and helping my father with everything," recalls Katerina.

There was no serious competition among Ukrainian bookmakers at that time; major players only emerged in the 2000s, notes Igor Romanyuk, publisher of Azart magazine. Betting accounted for barely 4% of the gambling market, dominated by lotteries, slot machines, and casinos.

Where does the name Parimatch come from? "It's basically 'betting on a sports match,'" explains Belorusskaya.
Only his daughter could tell Forbes any details about the founder of Parimatch. "Dad is old-school," she says. "And he always pays his debts." One winter, he lost $300 and drove through bad weather and icy conditions to a bookmaker's office to repay the debt. When he got there, he was "kissed the lock"—the office was closed for renovations. Shvindlerman decided to start a company that wouldn't create such difficulties for clients. At the time, he owned a small store that "sold everything," recalls Belorusskaya. No one agreed to reveal more about the founder of Parimatch's starting capital.

Shvindlerman doesn't like to be seen. He declined to speak with Forbes and didn't answer questions passed on to him by his daughter. People in the gambling industry are afraid to talk about him, much less on the record. "He's very private, even for the social scene," three influential gambling industry sources told Forbes on condition of anonymity. "And dangerous." Only a couple of photos from a press conference Shvindlerman gave six years ago are available online. A Google search for his name returns mostly negative articles on websites used for informational attacks.

The Kyiv Hippodrome was considered the center of bookmaking in the capital. "Everything was built on bets and wagers," recalls Romanyuk. "Playing records were kept in special notebooks; only a few systematically entered the business. They were considered either intellectual elite or crazy." Making money from betting back then, according to Romanyuk, required brains. This wasn't necessary for the then-fashionable one-armed bandits. "Now in gambling, everything is decided by automated algorithms. Back then, everything was calculated manually," adds Portnov.
"Parimatch was founded by a mathematician, and he easily assembled a team of mathematicians," says Belorusskaya. She couldn't recall exactly where her father studied, saying, "something like welding in space." Alexander Borisenko assumed the duties of the technical support department at that time. He wrote the first Betmanager odds-calculating platform in Delphi. "It could be compared to the Zaporozhets," says Portnov. "But its creator deserves a monument." Borisenko ran Parimatch with the Zaporozhets until 2018. He left the company in 2021.

Katerina Belorusskaya inherited the company, but not her father's passion. "I'm not a gambler, I'm an entrepreneur," she says. After graduating from the Institute of Journalism at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Belorusskaya joined the company at 21 simply to test her mettle. Between 2014 and 2016, her parents transferred ownership of Parimatch to her. Katerina is embarrassed when asked about her contributions to the company. "She's very modest," say several former Parimatch employees, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Shvindlerman introduced Portnov to the business in 2011. The founder was friends with his father, Yuri, a professional gambler. In 2005, Shvindlerman paid for Portnov's education in England: he studied gambling at the University of Salford. Why such generosity? "There was no agreement that I would return to Parimatch," Portnov says. "But the story of how I was brought up is certainly true."
After returning to Ukraine, they had a conversation. "I'm not particularly interested in this business anymore. Do whatever you want," Portnov recalls the words of Parimatch's founder. Shvindlerman's daughter confirms that her father didn't force her to work for the company either. Portnov is currently the second-largest shareholder in the company. Belorusskaya holds a controlling stake.

Startup. 2011–2017. The arrival of Portnov and Belorusskaya marked the beginning of Parimatch's rebirth. "We were building a skyscraper on an old foundation," says Portnov. Shvindlerman reinforced the foundation from the start, investing $500,000. From then on, they grew financially, constantly reinvesting, Portnov asserts.
Parimatch 1.0 had this mindset: retail was everything, the internet was only marginal. "When we joined the company, digital was already there, but it was limping along," says Portnov. It was a platform for betting shops and a website with simple functionality: open an account, place a bet, and withdraw funds within three days.

In 2011, Parimatch received an international license to operate online on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The company no longer had physical locations in Ukraine, and this license allowed it to develop digitally. "When I was scraping together my first $1,000 for advertising, they asked me, 'Why do you need this?'" recalls Portnov.
In 2011, Parimatch's veterans were all over 50. The newcomers, barely in their 20s, had no authority over them. "There was a huge generation gap between the teams," recalls Portnov.
Portnov says the CEO role was handed over to him "in stages" over four years. He assumed the position in 2014 and assumed full authority in 2015. "Then we immediately accelerated; nothing stopped us anymore," he says.

Portnov's main ally, Belorusskaya, also had to overcome mistrust. "It took Katya five or six years to be seen as a full owner," he notes. Shvindlerman's daughter dealt with the brick-and-mortar network. The stores were losing profitability; they were expensive and difficult to maintain. Cash registers were gradually closing. Parimatch now has only 40 physical locations left, all in Tajikistan.

Belorusskaya, according to Portnov, was the bridge between her father and the company. "She was a supervisor, or maybe even a lawyer. But she believed in the business," he adds.
Desperate to reach the veterans, Portnov and Belorusskaya focused on creating a parallel team with a digital focus. "It was the garage startup period," he says. "Nobody understood what we were doing."

In 2012, Portnov lured 25-year-old financier Nikita Izmailov from KPMG. Izmailov also took over the legal side of the business. Izmailov then hired Ivan Lyashenko, the future CMO of Parimatch Tech.
The young Parimatch team spent four years refining the product. Portnov describes the late 2000s and early 2010s as a "marketing race." The average cost of acquiring a single online player was $10-15. By 2021, the price, according to Izmailov, had risen to $45-50. "We were very lucky that we entered online marketing at the right time," says Portnov.

The lack of proper venues hindered the advertising race. Traditional platforms ignored the gambling industry. Parimatch found a solution by listing on sports, pirate, and pornographic websites.
"Pirates, yes," Portnov said in an interview with FEDORIV VLOG. "Others were disgusted back then."

According to the Special 301 Report compiled by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Ukraine consistently ranks among the top 10 pirate countries. The ninth most popular website in Ukraine, according to the analytics service SimilarWeb, is a pirated online movie theater.
All bookmakers place a lot of advertising on pirated websites, a top manager at a major betting company told Forbes on condition of anonymity. Most of the advertising on pirated online cinemas is from the gambling industry.

Four years later, Parimatch broke out of the advertising underground and into the big leagues. "In 2015, we aired our first commercial on TV," Izmailov recalls. "That's when I realized we'd succeeded." During this period of EBITDA growth, Parimatch reached a record high of $10 million per year, says Portnov. Since then, he says, the company has grown by 50-60% annually.

Some experiments cost the company tens of millions of dollars in losses. "We potentially lost hundreds of millions," says Portnov. "That's just money misinvested."
For example, Parimatch spent $10 million on a team of IT specialists for the BETLAB R&D center, which failed to take off. The idea was to develop universal betting software that could be sold to other betting companies. "We started developing a product that was ahead of Parimatch," says Portnov. The project was shut down in 2016, and the large IT team was transferred to Parimatch. "We tried to create a product for everyone without the expertise to develop such a product for ourselves," Belorusskaya explains of the failure.
Portnov's desire to improve Parimatch's IT is also linked to marketing. "We were so weak in IT that even if we'd been given a lot of traffic, it would have simply flown past," he explains. According to Portnov, the company experienced periods when it couldn't properly accept payments through payment systems.

The successful restructuring of Parimatch created a new problem. The Shvindlerman family wanted to collect dividends, while Portnov planned to reinvest the profits into development. "I wanted to quickly invest all the money and take over the world," he recalls. "I was crazy, and my family wasn't." To break the deadlock, the owners decided to sell the company.

In 2017, Parimatch was nearly sold for either €200 million or €300 million, says Katerina Belorusskaya. "It was the final stage of the deal," says Portnov. "Everyone said their goodbyes: the family went one way, and I went the other." The buyer was the British company GVC Holdings (renamed Entain in December 2020), with a market capitalization of $13.5 billion. "A couple of weeks before the deal, there were 200 cops in all the offices. Two months of harassment," recalls Portnov.
The deal fell through, but he's not particularly surprised by the coincidence. "As long as we've existed, the authorities have been pressuring us," says Portnov. "Once a year, an event; once every three years, a major event."
Every cloud has a silver lining: pressure from law enforcement has once again brought Portnov closer to the Shvindlerman family.
Harvest. Explosive Growth 2018–2021. During the 2019 presidential elections, Parimatch accepted bets on candidates winning the second round. "We saw from the bets who would win and with what result," says Portnov. "Everything matched up." For Parimatch, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's victory was of paramount importance. On July 14, 2020, after more than a decade of prohibition, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law legalizing gambling in Ukraine.
Parimatch was the first to receive a bookmaker license, worth UAH 108 million per year. It's no coincidence that Portnov considers his company "the driving force behind legalization." Parimatch's chief legal officer, Maksym Lyashko, 40, who joined Portnov's team in 2016, played a key role in the process. Lyashko and his lawyers actively participated in the working groups drafting the bill. "We pushed the project with all our might," he says. In 2021, Portnov ceded his position as CEO to Lyashko.

Parimatch claims to be moving toward "responsible gaming." "We don't want to make money off the poor," says Portnov. The business case for this idea is simple. The average Parimatch client's lifespan is 14 months. More basic competitors, such as online casinos, have a lifespan of just two months, Portnov explains.
"We used to think of our clients as the average minibus driver," says Belorusskaya. "But that's not true." Parimatch's client, known internally as "Misha," is a young, materialistic family man with an income of $1,000. He's socially active, enjoys sports, and wants to escape the daily grind. Betting is part of his lifestyle.

Parimatch is working to penetrate deeper into all the places its customers frequent: barbershops, gyms, and event halls. In 2019, the company launched PM Hall—a restaurant, sports broadcast venue, karaoke bar, and museum of sports legends all in one.

What do competitors think of Parimatch? "They have large marketing budgets and a very aggressive approach," says Boris Tsomaya, former creative director of Favbet. "If they enter a channel, they fill it all up, and no one else has a chance." Parimatch has a good corporate culture and values its people, says a former top manager at a major betting company.
Portnov has his own metaphors for his competitors. He compares Favbet to the ATB and Fora chains. "Those supermarkets are popular, but we don't go there," he says.
Parimatch has built a strong association with the international masculine brand through popular ambassadors. In 2019, they brought in boxing legend Mike Tyson and one of the best MMA fighters, Conor McGregor.

This positioning is based on Portnov's preferences, as he himself was heavily involved in martial arts, according to Lyashenko, the company's CMO. "When I first saw the new design, I said, 'This is awful,'" Belorusskaya recalls. "But now I like it."
Parimatch is already a lucrative client. "We spend at least $60 million a year on marketing across all markets," Portnov said in an interview with the YouTube channel "Tochka G" in late 2019. The company confirmed the accuracy of this data to Forbes. To handle such budgets, PM has built a 350-person marketing team.
According to Lyashenko, foreign marketers are hired to work in international markets. In 2020, Parimatch shifted its focus from ambassadors to sponsorships and esports. The company partners with football clubs Chelsea, Juventus, Leicester, and Everton.
Renowned clubs conduct a kind of casting process: recognition and reputation are crucial. Lyashenko has a team of managers who mingle with the elite sports community, building connections and a positive image.

Some people are lucky now and continue to play at Parimatch.