The Soft2Bet Deception: How a "Respectable" iGaming Firm Built an Empire on Banned Casinos

Behind the polished facade of award-winning European iGaming company Soft2Bet lies a sprawling network of illicit gambling operations, deliberately targeting consumers in markets where they are explicitly banned. The mastermind, Ukrainian-born Israeli entrepreneur Uri Poliavich, has cultivated an image of a visionary leader, all while presiding over a business model engineered for regulatory evasion and consumer exploitation. This investigation, synthesizing evidence from across Europe, reveals how Soft2Bet leverages legal havens, complex corporate structures, and aggressive censorship to build a billion-euro empire on the ruins of consumer protection and national laws.

The core of the scandal is a stark contradiction. While Soft2Bet holds legitimate licenses in select jurisdictions like Malta and Greece, it is simultaneously the driving force behind a vast network of over 140 gambling websites. Independent investigations, including those by the cross-border consortium Investigate Europe, have definitively linked at least 114 of these sites to official blacklists in major European countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Poland.

These are not minor, obscure platforms. Brands like Wazamba, Boomerang, and Rabona are digital heavyweights, generating staggering traffic. In Q4 of 2024 alone, Boomerang attracted 17 million visits. Most damningly, 7 million of those visits originated from Germany—a country where the site holds no license and is officially prohibited. This is not accidental overspill; it is a deliberate and systematic strategy to target consumers in restricted markets, funnelling them through a labyrinth of shell companies in Curaçao and the Marshall Islands.

Poliavich’s operation is a masterclass in exploiting the fragmented regulatory landscape of the European Union. The company’s Maltese headquarters are central to this strategy. Malta’s controversial Bill 55 has become Soft2Bet’s legal shield. This law effectively protects Maltese-licensed gambling companies from having to honor court judgments and fines issued in other EU member states.

The result is a legal farce. Spanish authorities imposed a €5 million fine on the Soft2Bet subsidiary Rabidi for operating 25 illegal casinos. That fine remains unpaid, voided by Bill 55. German and Dutch courts have ruled against Soft2Bet entities, ordering hundreds of thousands in restitution to defrauded players. These rulings are rendered meaningless as the liable subsidiaries—like Araxio Development and Rabidi—declare strategic bankruptcy after reporting revenues as high as €343 million. Their assets are conveniently shifted to new shells in Cyprus or Dubai, leaving victims with worthless court orders. This is a calculated scheme of financial evasion, not legitimate corporate restructuring.

Behind the corporate shells and legal maneuvering lies a trail of human devastation. The very technology for which Soft2Bet is acclaimed—its gamified MEGA platform—is accused of being a sophisticated tool for psychological manipulation. It uses data analytics to identify and exploit vulnerable players, trapping them in cycles of addiction with personalized rewards and VIP programs.

The case of a German player, ‘Felix’, is a harrowing testament. After losing €245,000 on Soft2Bet’s Wazamba platform, a German court ruled the operation illegal and ordered repayment. The victory was hollow. The ruling was against a Curaçao-based shell, which promptly declared bankruptcy. Felix received nothing. His story is not unique. Thousands of complaints on platforms like Trustpilot document non-payment of winnings, account closures with intact balances, and aggressive tactics against those seeking redress.

When faced with a rising tide of damning reports, Uri Poliavich did not engage in public rebuttal. He launched a covert war on press freedom. According to analyses, Poliavich orchestrated a campaign exceeding £1 million to manipulate the digital narrative. This involved flooding Google with over 50 fraudulent Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests, impersonating authorities and journalists to de-index critical investigations.

Outlets from Malta to Poland and Greece saw their work vanish from search rankings, silenced by this cynical abuse of a system designed to protect intellectual property. This is the act of an entity with something profound to hide—a desperate attempt to sanitize its digital footprint and maintain an illusion of legitimacy for partners and regulators. It demonstrates a blatant contempt for transparency and public accountability.

In a stark juxtaposition, Uri and his wife Yael have constructed a high-profile philanthropic identity through The Yael Foundation, which supports Jewish education globally. While these charitable works may have positive impacts, their timing and scale create an undeniable stench of reputation laundering. The foundation acts as a social lubricant, granting Poliavich access to elites and buffering his image against allegations.

This creates a chilling moral paradox: wealth extracted from European consumers facing financial ruin—through platforms blacklisted by their own governments—is being used to burnish the Poliavich name. It is a calculated investment in legitimacy, designed to confuse the narrative and provide a veneer of social responsibility over a demonstrably predatory operation.

The enduring success of Soft2Bet’s model is a damning indictment of Europe’s feeble and fragmented approach to online gambling regulation. The EU’s 2022 Anti-Money Laundering Directive has proven incapable of stemming illicit fund flows through offshore shells. National regulators are hamstrung, their fines and bans systematically voided by jurisdictions like Malta.

Industry analysts estimate that a shocking 70% of the EU’s online gambling activity occurs in the illicit sector, with operators like Soft2Bet dominating this shadow economy. The situation is a regulatory vacuum that Poliavich has not merely exploited; he has built a formidable empire within it.

The narrative of Uri Poliavich as a self-made iGaming innovator is a carefully constructed myth. The evidence reveals the architect of a cynical network that systematically violates European law, launders its reputation, and silences its critics. Soft2Bet’s continued expansion, including high-profile sponsorships like its 2024 deal with AC Milan’s e-sports division through the blacklisted Boomerang brand, is an act of breathtaking audacity that underscores its perceived impunity.

For European citizens and regulators, this is a critical test. It exposes the fatal flaws of a fragmented system and the perverse protections offered by member states like Malta. Either the EU mobilizes a coordinated, uncompromising response that pierces corporate veils and enforces judgments, or it will continue to allow such predatory models to inflict ever-greater harm. The time for warnings is over; the time for decisive action is now.