As part of our and Fintelegrams follow-the-money strategy research, we have been looking at the online casino and gambling segment for months. We are interested in the two aspects of compliance and payment services. Those who follow the money trail will also find payment facilitators in this segment. In connection with our investigations into the bankruptcy of the casino operator Rabidi, we found the Estonian crypto payment processor BitSpider and took a closer look.
BitSpider with Estonian Crypto License
The crypto payment processor BitSpider is operated by BitSpider OÜ, which is registered in Estonia and has held a crypto license from the Estonian FIU since 2020. As a crypto payment processor, BitSpider focuses on merchants who want to accept payments in cryptocurrencies. In this regard, BitSpider offers a complete solution that results in the merchant’s crypto revenue being automatically converted and credited to FIAT. The merchant can make the withdrawal in FIAT.
BitSpider has not yet submitted the annual financial statements for 2023 and, therefore, received a request for deletion on July 15, 2024. The deadline for submitting the annual financial statements was set for October 18, 2024.
The Rabidi Connection
One of the BitSpider merchants was or is the Cypriot Tilaros Limited, which acted as a payment agent for the casinos and gambling platforms of the Rabidi Group. Tilaros had a bank account with the FCA-regulated My EU Pay Ltd, to which BitSpider made FIAT payments. Bank documents from Tilaros provided to us by insiders confirm this. Apparently, the crypto deposits of players in the Rabidi casinos ended up in BitSpider‘s wallets.
Until recently, the Rabidi Group was an operator of several dozen online casinos with a license in Curacao. After Rabidi went bankrupt in the summer of 2023 at the request of a German player who did not receive his money, the license was revoked. Since then, the casinos have been operated anonymously and illegally. Tilaros in Cyprus was not only active as a payment agent for the Rabidi casinos, but also holds the trademark rights to most of the casinos.
The Slovenian Connection
What is interesting about this constellation is that the FCA-regulated My EU Pay and BitSpider have the same controlling shareholders: the Slovenian S8 d.d. (formerly SOL 8 d.d.), an investment company focused on tech companies in the early-stage financing sector.
According to the Estonian company register, the Slovanian national Damjan Rejec is the company’s ultimate beneficial owner (UBO).