Ukraine’s gambling regulator, PlayCity, has concluded an open competition for lottery operator licences, selecting MSL, Patriot and Ukrainian National Lottery as the successful bidders.
PlayCity said the outcome follows recent work to introduce new licence conditions intended to establish clearer operating requirements and increase oversight of the lottery sector.
Hennadiy Novikov, Head of PlayCity, said: “10 years is too long for ‘temporary solutions’.”
Referring to the period, he said the lottery market operated without ‘full-fledged rules and real control’.
Novikov added: “Today, we took the next, equally important step. We completed the open competition for licences for lottery operators.”
The regulator said the process now moves to formal licensing. Under PlayCity’s outlined timeline, the three winners will have 10 days to submit licence applications. After applications are reviewed, the operators will have a further 10 days to pay the annual licence fee.
Novikov said: “₴24.2m per year for each licence is a prerequisite for legal work in the market."
PlayCity said licences will be issued for the duration of martial law plus one year after its completion, but “not less than 3 years”.
The regulator described the time-limited structure as a transitional approach while changes to lottery legislation are pursued.
Novikov said: “This is a conscious decision that will allow us to make changes to the lottery law in parallel.”
He added: “It is by changing the law that we will finally be able to remove the monopoly of the three existing operators and open it to international companies.”
PlayCity did not provide a timeline for proposed legislative amendments, but positioned the competition and subsequent licensing as steps toward increased transparency, budget revenues and player protection under updated rules.
PlayCity recently fined Favbet UAH9m after finding the operator used software from a supplier without the required B2B licence and had delayed both player payouts and a licence payment during the regulator’s first round of compliance checks.
PlayCity was launched in 2025 to replace KRAIL and has introduced a state monitoring system intended to track bets, payouts, refunds and player deposits across licensed operators, with integration expected to be completed by summer
