After the article about bookmakers was published in the January issue of our newspaper, we received a large number of responses and letters from our readers. Therefore, we decided to conduct our own journalistic investigation.

The first bookmakers appeared at hippodromes, people made bets to watch the races with excitement. Later, totalizators appeared - bets on sports, but in most countries, they were illegal. For example, in the Soviet Union, totalizators were exclusively criminal in nature. Underground totalizators often resorted to the services of bandits who interfered in sports competitions, especially football, forcing and intimidating participants in order to get the desired result. The main lair of criminal totalizators in the USSR was in Tbilisi. We heard many stories from former athletes that failure to comply with the demands of underground bookmakers could cause serious consequences. At best, they were severely beaten, but they could have been left disabled. In recent decades, sports betting has resumed with renewed vigor, especially after the launch of Internet. In pursuit of profit, the owners of this semi-legal business still appleal to the services of the criminal world, and often engage in dirty tricks themselves. Facts of the unsportsmanlike nature of competitions constantly cause loud scandals and tarnish the reputation of professional sports. Values gradually get distorted, fans turn into gambling addicts, sports into an opportunity to earn easy money, the basic principles of fair sports competitions are destroyed. In other words - Sports from an opportunity for mass development and achieving high results are gradually turning into gambling and a dishonest casino!

Many civilized countries are trying to combat the process of turning sports competitions into gambling: sports betting is prohibited in China, India, Korea, Israel, Australia, most US states, and almost all Muslim countries. Most large European countries introduce certain restrictions, trying to restrain the development of this dangerous phenomenon. Unfortunately, in many countries this problem goes unnoticed, which has already led to serious harmful consequences and has grown in devastating proportions. It is especially frightening that more and more young people and even children are drawn into this movement, since bets are accepted online. Craving for easy money not only kills their learning and training motivation, but gradually turns them into addicts which is no better than drug addiction, and often leads to tragic consequences.

In Armenia, the situation with gambling on bets has reached truly catastrophic proportions and is getting worse every day! According to the published official data of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia, in 2024, Armenians placed bets for a total of 18.3 billion dollars. This is more than 70% of the National Income of the Republic (GDP of Armenia for 2024 was 25.8 billion dollars) !!!

Online gambling dominates the structure of residents' spending on gambling, accounting for about 98% of all bets - about $ 18 billion. The remaining amount was spent in land-based gambling establishments. At the same time, as specified by the State Revenue Committee, most of the funds spent on bets were returned in the form of winnings - $ 17.5 billion. It is noted that the volume of online bets in 2024 compared to 2018 grew 21 times! It is noteworthy that the turnover of the betting market in Armenia last year exceeded the country's defense budget by 13 times (in 2024, 555 billion drams were allocated for defense, equivalent to $ 1.4 billion), and also exceeded the size of the national debt by one and a half times (as of 01.01.2025, the national debt of Armenia amounted to $ 12.84 billion)! In addition, the number of suicides on social grounds has sharply increased. The number of officially registered suicides in 2024 exceeded 1,000 cases for the first time, more than 350 of which were fatal. Many bettors carefully hide their addiction, but in reality the situation is more than critical!

In order to understand what led to such a catastrophic state of affairs, we carried out our own journalistic investigation:

Today, there are three licensed bookmakers operating in Armenia. According to the list provided by the Ministry of Finance, these are: “Vivaro Betting” (“Vivarobet”), Digitane” (“Toto Gaming”) and “Kabarko” (“Adjarabet”).

The company “Adjarabet”, a representative of the gambling business of the same name operating in Georgia, is a relatively small player in the Armenian betting market (about 5% of the market).

“Vivaro Betting”, owned by Romik Badalyan, the father of the famous entrepreneur brothers Vigen and Vahe Badalyan. The main business of online casinos and bookmaker betting is conducted mainly outside of Armenia. This family also owns the credit organization “Fast Credit”, the hotel and restaurant complex “Kavkaz”, federal sports TV  channels and other companies.

The company "Digitain", operating under the brand "Toto Gaming", (registered in 2014) is the main player, more than 50% of sports bets in Armenia are run by this company. The founder and main shareholder is Vardges Vardanyan. He is also the founder of a chain of pawn shops and the largest Armenian wine company "Armenia Wine", and recently, he is the sole owner of the Football Club "Noah", which has a license to play not only in the Premier League of the Armenian Championship, but also in European Cups under the auspices of UEFA.

More than 95 percent of sports bets in Armenia are bets on football matches, both domestic championship and international games.

Since 2022, direct advertising of bets on sporting events has been banned in Armenia. Bookmakers started to look for alternative ways to promote their business. Vivaro Betting has launched three sports channels that constantly broadcast football matches and sports competitions, trying to attract customers this way.

The owner of Toto Gaming took an unprecedented step, at the beginning of 2023 he acquired the football club "Noah" participating in the Premier League of the Armenian Football Championship. Over the year, the volume of bets on football matches doubled, mainly due to the growth of Toto Gaming, it even overtook Vivaro Betting in terms of turnover and became the main player in the domestic betting market. In 2024 the situation got even worse!

The owner of the Toto Gaming company - Vardges Vardanyan, on the one hand, accepts bets on matches, on the other hand, he himself is a participant in these games, ensuring the result he needs. He lavishly spends money on expensive legionnaires who are able to complete the task passing off these expenses as investments in Armenian football and thereby raising his image.

But can this be called a legitimate business and how lawful is it? Sports lawyers helped us figure this out:

The laws of the Republic of Armenia, in particular, «the Law on Physical Culture and Sports» and «the Law on Games with Winnings and Gambling Houses» do not prohibit a bookmaker from being a direct owner of a football club.

The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) Regulations on Disciplinary Issues and Ethics also do not provide for sanctions for the fact that a bookmaker is the owner of a club. However, Article 31 of these Regulations states the following:

"31.01 All football organizations must refrain from any actions that may harm the conduct of the game and tournament, and must cooperate with the FFA to prevent such incidents.

31.02 The holding of games and competitions is prejudiced whenever a person has a direct or indirect financial interest in a particular outcome of a match"

The UEFA Disciplinary Regulations have a similar provision in Article 12:

"1. All persons bound by UEFA rules and regulations shall refrain from any conduct that prejudices or may prejudice the integrity of matches and competitions and shall at all times fully co-operate with UEFA in its efforts to combat such conduct. 

The integrity of matches and competitions is prejudiced by a person that:

  1. acts in a manner that may unlawfully or improperly influence the course and/or outcome of a match or competition in order to gain an advantage for himself or a third party;
  2. is directly or indirectly involved in betting or similar activities related to matches in the competition or has a direct or indirect financial interest in such activities"

According to Article 19 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations:

"All persons bound by these provisions shall avoid situations which could give rise to a conflict of interest. Such a conflict may arise if persons bound by these provisions have, or appear to have, private or personal interests which interfere with their ability to carry out their duties without any undue influence. Private or personal interests may include, in particular, personal gain, financial profit or other motives for benefiting themselves, their family, friends or others. All persons bound by these provisions shall promptly inform UEFA of any such conflicts of interest.

All persons bound by these provisions shall refrain from carrying out their duties in the event of an actual or potential conflict of interest."

In turn, Article 27 of the FIFA Code of Ethics provides the following:

"1. Persons bound by this Code are prohibited from participating directly or indirectly in betting, gambling, lotteries or similar events or transactions related to football matches or competitions and/or any football-related activities.

Persons bound by this Code must not have direct or indirect financial interests (through or with third parties) in activities such as betting, gambling, lotteries or similar events or transactions related to football matches and competitions. Interests include obtaining any possible advantage for the persons bound by this Code themselves and/or for parties related to them. 

In addition, FIFA and UEFA are located in Switzerland and their activities are subject to Swiss law. Consequently, the provisions of Swiss law apply to the activities of FIFA and UEFA, including regulatory activities in the field of football. Ownership of a football club by a bookmaker may constitute a gross violation of Swiss competition law, in particular the Cartel Act. Thus, by owning a football club, a bookmaker can exploit its unique market position – in other words, a football club owned by a bookmaker can become a significant competitive advantage for that bookmaker. By receiving information from a football club owned by a bookmaker, it puts itself at a significant advantage compared to other market participants.

In view of the above, the situation in which a football club and a bookmaker are owned by the same person indicates a violation by the management of this club of Article 31 of the Regulations of the Football Federation of Armenia on Disciplinary Issues and Ethics, Articles 12 and 19 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations and Article 27 of the FIFA Code of Ethics, as well as the legislation of Switzerland. These circumstances provide sufficient grounds for the relevant inspection to be undertaken by the responsible organs of FIFA, UEFA and FFA, as well as the withdrawal of the club's license to participate in sports competitions held under the auspices of the above-mentioned organizations!

Why is everyone silent and turning a blind eye to this, are there similar precedents in other countries? We addressed football experts with this question:

There are no similar precedents in world football, as in Armenia, since this initially contradicts the legislation and sports principles of holding competitions. Bookmaker companies, as a rule, act as sponsors of clubs, without the right to participate in the management process. Last year, there was a major scandal with the Russian Premier League club Pari NN, when it turned out that an employee of the bookmaker Pari-Match was a member of the club's board of directors with voting rights. This caused serious investigations and accusations of organizing fixed matches.

How did it happen that this became possible in Armenia? Why are the leaders of the Football Federation of Armenia, UEFA and FIFA do not take action?

Much has already been said and written about the incompetence of the current leadership of the Football Federation of Armenia. In recent years, Armenian football has been mired in scandals and has shown the worst results in its long history. The previous head of the Football Federation fought against fixed matches, criminal cases were initiated, the organizers were identified and sentenced real prison terms. After the re-election of the president of the Federation in 2018, the situation changed radically.

We managed to talk to several current employees of the Football Federation of Armenia as well as those who quit. The information we received shocked us, to put it mildly! According to employees who wished to remain anonymous, the President of the Federation Armen Melikbekyan and Vice-President Armen Nikoghosyan not only do not oppose unfair betting games, but also benefit by such earnings themselves, taking an active part in organizing fixed matches. At the same time, Armen Melikbekyan is also the actual head of the CSKA and CSKA-2 teams, participants of the Armenian championship in the top and first leagues. One can say that the situation has been brought to the point of absurdity.

According to current football players, who also asked not to give their names, more than a quarter of matches in the top and first leagues are fixed, and it is not uncommon for club managers to agree on the result in advance, or deliberately undermine games in order to play profitably on bets. Some clubs not only exist on this money, but have also turned fixed games into a highly profitable business. For example, I will give a link to the match Noah - West Armenia, the 27th round of last year's Armenian championship,

( https://www.youtube.com/live/NptgkkEeEUM?feature=shared ),

even an inexperienced fan only needs to watch the last 10 minutes to understand the fixed nature of this match. One of the participants in that game told us that during the break the players received strict instructions to ensure a 5-2 result, otherwise they would have serious problems. After, this player sent the recording to the relevant FIFA and UEFA organizations, but there was no reaction.

We also managed to find out that all the opponents of the football club “Noah” in the Conference League Cup last summer appealed to UEFA with demands to assess the legality of the participation of the club “Noah” in the European Cups held under the auspices of UEFA. But each time the management of the European Football Association left the statements unanswered. Obviously, in the end the matter will reach the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in which case Armenian Football will once again disgrace itself, this time on the European arena.

One of the matches of “Noah” in the Conference League with the club “Sliema” from Malta raised many questions among the fans. After a 7:0 home victory, in the return match the Armenian club did not move to the opponent’s half of the field during the entire game, eventually playing a draw with a score of 0:0. Obviously, a huge number of bets were made in Armenia on the victory of “Noah”, given the difference in class and the crushing victory in the first match. As a result, a large number of bettors lost money, bookmakers, including Toto Gaming, received income that amounts to millions of dollars!

We asked one of the Armenian clubs to send a request on its behalf to FIFA and UEFA on the legality of issuing a license to the Noah club to participate in international matches. FIFA responded, “It is not within your competence to ask such questions.” UEFA’s response was as follows: “We recommend that you contact the Football Federation of Armenia with such questions.” Regardless the fact that the discussion was about the right to participate in European cups.

Having privately spoken with the employees of the Noah Football Club, we managed to find out that the club is helped to resolve all issues related to UEFA by a well-known former football player, Luis Figo, who is also an advisor and close associate of UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin. According to unconfirmed reports, Vardges Vardanyan pays him a monthly salary of 50,000 euros per month!

Many people remember of Luis Figo curruption, especially Barcelona fans! Journalists from international sports publications often write about corruption in UEFA, apparently there is every reason for this!

Another argument why Aleksandr Ceferin turns a blind eye to everything that is happening in Armenian football is that, according to the charter, the current term of the UEFA president is the last one. But some countries, including Armenia, propose changing the charter and allowing Ceferin to remain in this post for another term. Civilized European countries are certainly against it, but unfortunately, the majority is still like the Football Federation of Armenia. Moreover, elections to the UEFA Executive Committee will be held in Belgrade on April 3. It is amazing that one of the candidates for the highest governing body of European football is the head of the Football Federation of Armenia - Armen Melikbekyan! The man who brought Armenian football to the worst results in its history, whose resignation is demanded not only by fans, but also by the entire sports community of Armenia, has been nominated for a high post in the European Football Association! If he is really elected to the UEFA Executive Committee, it will mean only one thing: European football is governed by protectionism and corruption, and there, too, real results and fans' opinions do not matter!

The result of our investigation is disappointing:

The current football leaders both in Armenia and in Europe are not interested in limiting this semi-legal, often criminal business, since it contradicts their personal interests. Behind the rapid growth of the business of unfair bets on football matches in Armenia is not only the owner of Toto Gaming - Vardges Vardanyan, but also the FFA leadership, represented by Armen Melikbekyan and Armen Nikoghosyan, the UEFA leadership, represented by Alexander Ceferino and Luis Figo, all this is happening with the tacit consent of the FIFA leadership, which is aware of what is happening, but prefers not to interfere.

To change the situation, it is necessary:

Introduce urgent amendments in the Armenian Legislation! We appeal to the members of the Armenian government and the deputies of the National Assembly with a request: to pay their personal attention to the above-mentioned emergency situation, which threatens snowballing into a national catastrophe!

P.S.

Dear readers! We should not stay indifferent to this problem, which continues to worsen and has already led to tragic consequences. It is necessary to raise this pressing issue as often as possible until it attracts the attention of high officials and the general public! For our part, we promise to continue the investigation and publish the results. We also plan to contact international organizations, journalistic and media communities in order to jointly resist the destructive actions of unscrupulous bookmakers, which have long gone beyond the fair sports!