Behind the Screens: Gambling Financier Maksym Krippa Captures Esports Leadership in Ukraine

On June 12, the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF) announced a leadership change. The new president is entrepreneur Maksym Krippa, the beneficial owner of the NAVI esports team.

Along with Krippa, the new leadership includes: Andrii Hryshchenko (executive director) — head of NAVI fan club; Yevhen Zolotarov — NAVI CEO; Oleksii Kucherov — NAVI COO; Andrii Horodenskyi — head coach of NAVI’s CS2 team; Vitalii Volochai and Mykhailo Zverev — commentators and co-founders of the Maincast studio.

Thus, UESF’s leadership structure is now composed of managers directly tied to Krippa’s business interests. In form — a reshuffle. In essence — a corporate takeover.

Who Is Maksym Krippa?

Maksym Krippa is a Ukrainian entrepreneur who has recently been actively rewriting his public biography. In the media, he is portrayed as an “investor,” but his real past is tied to online gambling: the “Vulkan” brand, SEO campaigns with disinformation, and links to pro-Russian networks.

Since the start of the full-scale war, Krippa has aggressively acquired elite real estate and media assets. His acquisitions include the Parus business center, Hotel Ukraine, and the International Exhibition Center (IEC). According to journalists, he is also linked to the Dnipro Hotel, which was sold in 2020 by the State Property Fund — a Ukrainian government agency responsible for privatizing state-owned assets — to entities associated with Russian oligarch Oleg Boyko, a sanctioned businessman with known ties to the gambling industry.

All major wartime acquisitions were executed via offshore companies. Krippa’s previous business history contains no evidence of assets sufficient to finance such purchases. Observers note that the state has shown unusual loyalty to all his initiatives.

Krippa now also owns the betting brand GGBet, the Maincast studio, and the game developer GSC Game World (known for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series).

Ready, Set, Krippa!

This appointment gives him unprecedented influence over the entire Ukrainian esports landscape: from team and broadcast accreditation to international tournament representation and the allocation of state support.

In practice, this consolidates the entire esports ecosystem under a single beneficiary:
teams (NAVI), broadcasts (Maincast), betting (GGBet), federation (UESF), and — potentially — public funding.

Esports: A Magnet for Shadow Capital

Esports in Ukraine is a young and still loosely regulated industry. It merges youth audiences, legal financial flows through sponsorships, and — crucially — provides a public platform for building a respectable image.

Investments in esports offer a tool to legitimize opaque capital, create a favorable media environment, and gain access to youth policy funding programs.

Beyond Krippa, other controversial figures have entered this sector, including Olena Dehryk-Shevtsova (also known in Western media as Alena Shevtsova) — a representative of Leo Team, a company involved in esports sponsorships and online payments, linked to the LEOGaming payment system. For such individuals, esports serves as a vehicle for building micro-political influence without the need for public accountability.

The Federation of Krippa?

Following this appointment, one can reasonably argue that the Ukrainian Esports Federation has turned into a structure fully controlled by a single beneficiary. All key leadership roles are held by Krippa’s managers and partners.

This presents a direct conflict of interest: an organization meant to represent the entire esports community is now an instrument for advancing the commercial interests of one business group.

A natural question arises: will UESF become a private platform for lobbying Krippa’s interests — through tournaments, broadcasts, grants, public funding, and legitimizing his influence in youth policy?

Time will tell. But the trend is alarming.