On October 1-2, the second “Gambling: Sports Deductions” forum took place in Moscow, organized by the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation and the public-law company “Unified Regulator of Gambling”, with operational support from “RK-Sport”, the sports platform of the Roscongress Foundation.

The forum served as the primary platform for interaction between federal legislative and executive authorities, gambling organizers, all-Russian sports federations, and professional sports leagues. Sessions and discussions focused on practical issues of cooperation between sports entities in Russia and gambling organizers, legislative developments, and the introduction of new formats for competitive sports.

Key speakers included Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Mikhail Degtyarev, First Deputy Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Odes Baysultanov, International Boxing Federation President Umar Kremlev, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Ivan Chebeskov, General Director of the Unified Gambling Regulator Alexey Grachev, among others.

The All-Russian Sports Federation of Sports of the Deaf delegation, led by President Dmitry Rebrov, First Vice-President Vyacheslav Ershov, and Vice-President Vladimir Veselli, actively participated, engaging with forum stands and attending selected sessions. Dmitry Rebrov also met with Georgy Bryusov, Director of the Center of Sports Training of National Teams of Russia, and Sergey Moskvitin from RK-Sport.

The second day featured sessions on enhancing interactions between sports and bookmakers, exploring ways to increase sports attractiveness for bookmaking.

First Deputy Minister of Sports Odes Baysultanov opened the session “Sports and Bookmakers: Collaborating for Society”, discussing key aspects of cooperation between these sectors.

Vice-President Vladimir Veselli and Assistant to the President Maria Vasileva from the All-Russian Sports Federation of Sports of the Deaf participated in these discussions and other forum activities.

Veselli held meetings with industry representatives including Andrey Kirilenko (President, Russian Basketball Federation), Alexey Babichev (Director of Communications, PARI Bookmaker Company), Sergey Moskvitin (Director, RK-Sport), Pavel Krasnov (Head of Sponsorship, BetBoom Bookmaker Company), Konstantin Gusev (Development Director, Olimpbet Bookmaker Company), and Alina Osmak (President, Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Adaptive Sports Federation).

During discussions with the head of the Russian Basketball Federation, Veselli expressed gratitude for advancing the “silent!basketball” (“тихий!баскетбол”) project and proposed formalizing the collaboration by signing a memorandum at the upcoming “Russia – country of sports” Forum in Ufa, scheduled for October 17-19.

Text: Andrey Popov, Nurlan Tazhigulov
Photo: ARSFSD
Translation: Daria Kudelina