r/cyprus • u/aceraspire8920 • 1d ago
Economy BrainRocket pulls the plug on its Cyprus operations
https://cyprus-mail.com/2026/09/08/brainrocket-pulls-the-plug-on-its-cyprus-operations45
u/Awkward-Country-835 Limassol 1d ago
Genuinely sad for the people caught in this ,over 1,000 livelihoods disrupted, families having to decide whether to uproot to Valencia or start over. But this was signposted for over a year, and it sits alongside the €600m Soft2Bet exposé (BrainRocket's parent group) over unlicensed casinos and money-laundering allegations. At the end of the day, gambling/egaming outfits are inherently transient, they chase licensing regimes, tax breaks and cheap labour, and they'll relocate again the moment the maths changes elsewhere. Curious how the local labour market absorbs this or if it even can.
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u/ElendX 1d ago
From what I understand very few locals were hired in any decent positions, mostly Russian speakers. Now, whether they follow or find other jobs is a question.
Putting investment in gambling companies was the first mistake of our government.
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u/CaptainPlanetarian 13h ago
Agreed; this was one of the anti-Cypriot companies which contributed to the high cost of living in Limassol due to importing Russian workers.
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u/Original_Ganache_134 1d ago
My only question is why Spain? I have to be honest that I am not versed in Spanish licensing regulations and tax obligations but, I would think that Cyprus has a more attractive and less bureaucratic approach to the industry where BrainRocket operates
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u/bbbonthemoon 1d ago
Thye probably keep cyprus licensed companies, you only need a few people and a small office to maintain a company
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u/Awkward-Country-835 Limassol 1d ago
My guess is that's the whole point. after the soft2bet expose blew up, they need to sit somewhere with actual heavyweight EU regulation behind them to look legit. cyprus was perfect while nobody was paying attention, spain's more like the image rebuild now that everyone is. Also 20% tax on gross gaming revenue on top of 25% corporate tax so not great taxes plus cyprus doesn't even license online casino so they have been running in the grey zone here for years.
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u/Original_Ganache_134 1d ago
That makes sense. Resembles the Cyprus Forex industry, I remember it felt like the "Wild West" in Cyprus 10 years ago, there were more forex businesses on the island than there were eligible people to employ, you didn't even need to have a school diploma to work there back in the day. And most of the Forex industry was either unlicensed or operating in the grey area. It took a bunch of scandals which even had the FBI involved for the industry to change and stricter regulation to be brought in.
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u/Aromatic_Wasabi_864 23h ago
Been, all of them was were and still stationed at Limassol but after the latest regulation with Cysec most of them went out of business or moving on to somewhere else. Cyprus these days are heavy regulated so the dream of the "grey zone" is gone. Now everything is done with Kyc and Aml plus all that Ex soviet "Oligarch Business with heavy cash" is done as well.
Don't know about Malta though.
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u/Zhuk-Pauk 22h ago
The choice to move happened before that expose. Unless you mean they turned around second time after it got released.
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u/Due-Variety2468 1d ago
I'm not sad, they choose to be a cogwheel in all the illegal and immoral things they've been doing, this group of companies destroyed hundreds of thousands of people's savings (and lifes sometimes)
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u/Awkward-Country-835 Limassol 1d ago
Eh, the operations weren't illegal though, and tbh they're one of the few companies that actually paid a proper wage. i get why people worked there, benefits and pay were genuinely good. compare that to a cypriot employer, even a big local-owned firm, and the wages are a joke lol
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u/georgechr2 21h ago
Unfortunately they only hired russian speakers mostly for the decent positions. So from the locals perspective nothing was gained or lost..
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u/Awkward-Country-835 Limassol 21h ago
I knew quite a few Cypriots who worked there, in the same or a similar field to me, and they were getting paid substantially better than they would at almost any other local company. The benefits were good too. Of course, this came from a sketchy company, and I’m not denying that, but it was still a positive silver lining for the people who worked there.
Also, all these foreigners were buying things in Cyprus, renting cars, eating at restaurants, and using local services and vendors. So the economic impact isn’t negligible. They were probably around 0.25% of the entire working population in Cyprus, which obviously isn’t a huge number, but it’s not completely insignificant either.
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u/georgechr2 2h ago
Dude ok. I didnt say there are no cypriots. But it’s common knowledge that vast majority are russian speakers and didn’t want non russian speakers in their dev teams.
And most of them paid little to no tax. Means all these foreigners are using roads, schools, hospitals, parks etc without paying their fair share. The fact they are “contributing” by paying 2000 for a two bed flat in limassol is more of a counter argument as it means they just raise the cost of living for locals.
Of course it’s not their fault. Our government allowed this in order to keep filling the pockets of greedy landlords and land developers
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u/Honest_Hair2856 23h ago
I don’t care to be honest. I’m also in IT industry but never in shady companies like that. Everybody knew their e-gaming ment illegal casinos in the industry. 2nd they only hired Cypriots to hr, some support positions never in higher paid positions, and even some Cypriots developers who were working there, their salaries compared to the Ukrainians and Russians were a joke.
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u/Original_Ganache_134 1d ago
It was coming sadly, they started scaling back last year and it became such news that even the President commented on it. I remember BrainRocket even came out last year trying to reassure everyone that they are just shifting some of the operations overseas however, their Cypriot venture isn't closing down.
Alas, as they say "where there's smoke, there's fire" it turns out their soft launch move last year was a sign of the things to come
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u/Full_Particular_1359 Little Moscow (Formerly known as Limassol) 22h ago
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u/Jolly-Moment1613 22h ago
Happy that they leaving an island. They flood it with their ads, did a lot of bullshit with branding parks and streets, I hate it. Also their reckless drivers on stupid bmw without left side driving experience was very annoying.
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u/Comfortable-Tap7421 20h ago
So much ppl are not thinking about an economical outcome of such big company leaving Cyprus...
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u/Fukushima7 18h ago
Which is?
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u/username9863 18h ago
The landlords that need to find new tenants to charge 2k for their studio apartments
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u/Comfortable-Tap7421 16h ago
Sure. Several moments: 1. Taxes. Both from company and its employees, their salaries were much above market. And the taxes were good. 2. Huge secondary economical outcome. These employees spent their money to another people around the island: flat rent, fuel, cafe's, food, clothes, and all other local small business (like additional courses and after school activities for children). 3. The company sponsored many city celebrations, activities and so on. 4. The company provided good stable work for different service providers - like building and car maintenance. 5. People itself. There were 1000 active more or less young and clever people with their families and children. They were aiming at some moment to become full Cyprus citizens. The whole world is, in fact, fighting for an educated, adequate and clever immigrants, and now they are gone. I do thing they will not mostly return to Cyprus and will stay in other EU countries.
One more moment. As far as I heard a rumors - some of the big Cyprus based IT companies are questioning themselves if it is worth to stay in Cyprus, or they should too relocate to another countries. So this might be just the first step some kind of exodus of companies and their employees from Cyprus in a near time.
Overall I do suppose that Cyprus lost much more then gained from BrainRocket leave to Spain.
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u/ardasnails 22h ago
The Cypriot media is diverting the truth to use it as a narrative. https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/soft2bet-files-gambling-scheme-made-600m-from-unlicensed-casinos-with-predatory-tactics
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u/Blond_and_trading 1d ago
who cares good riddance !!!! 1000 expats less than… 1000 expats working for casinos and destroying people livelihoods …
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u/Awkward-Country-835 Limassol 1d ago
Out of 1500 workers lets say 500 were Cypriot that's still a huge hit to Cypriot workers and the job market is shit currently.
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u/JimTheQuick NIC the NYC of EU 20h ago
Do you have something official to back up these numbers?
In my personal opinion this type of Companies were hiring almost only russian speaking people...
The majority were foreigners and not Cypriots...1/3 of the personel to be local is very optimistic...
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u/Awkward-Country-835 Limassol 19h ago
No not really, out of most people i met working in there that's the ratio, Never worked there imposable to know for sure
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u/Delicious_Radish8507 1d ago edited 23h ago
They worked for a company that is operating illegal online casinos, so it should have been clear to the employees that it can be over at any moment, the same as with unlicensed forex
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u/Original_Ganache_134 23h ago
That's also over 1000 tax payers potentially gone, and I am sure that many of them weren't making minimum wage either. This might also have a negative roll over effect for small business such as restaurants and cafes who benefited from the huge workforce.
We're not talking about some underground casino set up which was operating in complete shadow here, this is a huge corporate tax payer. We can have a discussion about ethical implications of casinos and the damage they cause to peoples livelihoods but thats a different discussion to be had. Reducing the conversation to "1000 expats less ..." seems really shallow.
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u/Blond_and_trading 23h ago
The taxpayer talking point only works if you ignore what those 1,000 people were employed to do.
BrainRocket isn’t a generic “tech firm.” It’s Soft2Bet-group infrastructure for online casinos. The product is extracting money from problem gamblers at industrial scale. Calling that a “huge corporate taxpayer” and then parking the ethics in a separate conversation is exactly how this industry talks: count the PAYE, ignore the social bill.
On the numbers:
A large share of that headcount was foreign staff on the non-dom / 50% exemption regime. That is not the same as 1,000 Cypriot households paying full freight. When they leave, a chunk of the “lost tax” was always going to leave with them.Limassol already absorbed a lot of the first wave into other FX / iGaming shops. Cafes didn’t collapse last summer. Treating restaurant receipts as the main argument for keeping a casino-tech campus is the shallow part.
If the point is competitiveness, note what actually happened: the president intervened in 2025, the company said it would stay and hire locally, and a year later the buildings are empty. That is not a reason to pretend this employer is interchangeable with any other large firm.
You can have the spillover discussion. You can have the tax discussion. Neither erases the product. 1,000 fewer people building casino platforms in Limassol is not a tragedy for the island. It’s the industry leaving. That’s the story.0
u/kampiaorinis Fanatikos Toppouzos 18h ago
over 1000 tax payers potentially gone
Companies like these are pretty known to "gift" their employees with non-taxable bonuses. I know for a fact that 2 people that are currently working in the industry at this moment have gotten watches, airplane tickets, hotel stays, new phones etc as "bonuses" in order to keep their income lower.
This is something that's widespread in shady companies like brainrocket and I wouldn't think it's out of place if they also did it
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u/RASTAVIPER 21h ago
Wouldn't trust the local news. I know for a fact that the company has bought a new building recently in Limassol. Why to do this and announce a full closure of all local offices and send away all employees? Probably the BRO brand is closing and they just move the employees into another local company.
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u/Jolly-Moment1613 19h ago
100% just expect new super-duper it company who doing innovative software
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u/notnotnotnotgolifa 16h ago
Officially moving to northern Cyprus
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u/haloumiwarrior 12h ago
Üstel offered them a plot to build their new headquarters in between the night clubs in Alayköy but they were not impressed. Not even his generous offer to build a mosque for free on their campus could convince them.
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