Parimatch and Bet365 close their Russia-facing iGaming domains

Prominent online casino and sportsbetting operators Parimatch and Bet365 have reportedly pulled their services from Russia after that giant nation’s army last week invaded the neighboring country of Ukraine.

According to a source, Parimatch is currently headquartered in Cyprus but was established in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in 1994 as one of the latter European nation’s first online businesses. The iGaming enterprise purportedly used an official Wednesday press release to declare that the decision regarding its Parimatch.ru domain follows the ‘military aggression’ of Russia towards its birthplace and is to involve the termination of the sub-licensing deal it inked with local partner Betring LLC some six years ago.

Comprehensive cancellation:

Parimatch reportedly stated that it also intends to continue developing further restrictions on the use of its trademarks, logos and intellectual properties in the nine nations that constitute the Confederation of Independent States (CIS), of which Russia is the largest member. The operator purportedly serves as the official local partner of Spain’s La Liga football league in this giant bloc of over 236 million people that moreover includes the countries of Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Reportedly read the filing from Parimatch…

“We have always been proud of the Ukrainian roots of our company and in these difficult times we are even more overwhelmed by love for our native country. We strongly condemn the military aggression against Ukraine and will try to do everything possible to help Ukraine.”

Abrupt aid:

Parimatch’s decision to abandon Russia reportedly came just a few days after the operator disclosed that it would be launching a €2.9 million ($3.2 million) fund to help provide direct support for the beleaguered armed forces of Ukraine. The operator purportedly noted that this scheme is due to be used to buy ammunition, medicines and food for the soldiers currently defending cities such as Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv.

Constant commitment:

Finally, Parimatch reportedly noted that it additionally intends to maintain all employment contracts inked before the start of the invasion of Ukraine and is continuing to pay salaries and hire new workers despite the conflict.

Second stop:

For its part and Bet365 reportedly pronounced that it will be closing down its Russia-facing domain at Bet365.ru and has given local punters until March 15 to withdraw any funds. The British operator has purportedly already closed own the site’s deposit and registration functions and asked partners to remove any banners, logos and marketing materials that could be used to promote its brand in Russia.

Service solidarity:

In related news and the source reported that Polish sports data provider Statscore sp zoo recently confirmed that it has analogously ceased supplying statistics and updates from any events taking place in Russia or Belarus. This Katowice-headquartered enterprise purportedly supplies information to a wide range of online sportsbetting operators including BoyleSports but used a Tuesday tweet to declare that it no longer wishes ‘to provide any sports data and live scores for competitions organized by countries that just savagely assaulted other nations or helped in this process’.