Natus Vincere started with a CS team back in 2009 and has grown into the main eSports organization in Ukraine. The success pushed them to expand into different online games, including their recent announcement of entering the VALORANT competitive stage.
Since 2012, the Ukrainian organization has earned more than $18,000,000 in prize money through a wide range of exciting game titles and has a star AWPer Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, which is a good example of the level of players the company hosts.
Up until recently, the founder and owner of the club have been Alexander “ZeroGravity” Kokhanovsky, a retired Ukrainian professional CS player who entered the top five most influential people in eSports in Eastern Europe 2019 according to Forbes Ukraine.
However, the legal entity anonymously changed the ultimate beneficial owner back in 2020 to Ukrainian businessman Maksym Krippa. The sale was not publicly reported until July 12, 2022, leaving questions as to why it was hidden for so long.
NaVi and Undisclosed Transfer of Ownership
Since its registration in 2018, Alexander Kokhanovsky has belonged to Limited Liability Company NAVI UA through a legal entity in the British Virgin Islands. And only in July 2022 it was discovered that the legal entity changed hands.
Two top managers of the Ukrainian organization privately told Forbes Ukraine that the deal took place back in 2020. The revenue of the company was 4,800,000 hryvnias in 2019, and after this undisclosed transfer of ownership, it became 4,600,000 hryvnias, respectively.
In addition, a former employee of the club anonymously confirmed that Maksym Krippa has owned the team for a long time. That said, the new owner has a background definitely worth looking into.
Who is Maksym Krippa?
Maksym Krippa is a Ukrainian businessman who has been involved in several advertising, software production, and trading companies for a long time. Also, he is associated with the ggbet bookmaker and the Vulcan online casino chain, widely known amongst the eSports community.
Maksym tried to disassociate himself with Bet Vulcan, requesting Google representatives to remove unwanted search results. At some point, he succeeded in it and became an expert in volcanoes, with a diploma from the Institute of Volcanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
NaVi and GG.BET
According to reports from Forbes Ukraine, Natus Vincere bought GG.BET. From 2017 to 2020, the bookmaker was the title partner of the Ukrainian organization. In 2020, when the sale of NaVi allegedly took place, the club transitioned to a new sponsor, 1XBet. Not long after in January 2021, GG.BET returned and replaced 1xBet as Natus Vincere’s sponsor.
The top manager of NaVi confirmed that the club specifically sold title sponsorship to another bookmaker so that they would not be associated with GG.BET, which is allegedly owned by none other than Maksym Krippa. It’s been suggested that the sponsors’ change was designed to distract from the ownership overlap between these two organizations.
Common Cypriot Roots
Both Natus Vincere and GG.BET have a legal entity in Cyprus. The official website of the Ukrainian club is operated by Cypriot Natus Vincere Esport CY. It also owns three eSports team trademarks registered in 2020.
On the other hand, the GG.BET website is operated by Cyprus Brivio Ltd, registered in November 2012. In addition, the company owns two betting trademarks registered in the United States and Europe.
With that being said, there have been no conclusive connections drawn between these two entities despite the common Cypriot roots of their vast associated companies.
How Does it Affect Betting?
The anonymity of the sale transaction is associated with certain risks in betting. According to one of the top managers of NaVi, if a betting company owns an eSports club, it may not be allowed to compete due to the risk of fixed matches.
At the time of writing, GG.BET is sponsoring several stages of the upcoming Dota 2 The International 2022 event. The previous TI tournament dropped jaws with more than $40,000,000 prize pool. However, after the transfer of ownership, there are certain reputational risks, and the Ukrainian team may not be able to compete due to a conflict of interest.
