Charity Board denounces Ecuabet for alleged operational irregularities
The Guayaquil Board of Charity filed a formal complaint against the sports betting company Ecuabet, accusing it of operating irregularly in Ecuador and allegedly using a network of foundations and companies to evade tax obligations.
The information was disclosed by the Ecuadorian media outlet Primicias, which accessed the official document detailing the accusation. According to that report, the main alleged irregularity is that the company would be operating with an expired foreign license to offer sports betting services.
Expired license in Anjouan
On its own website, Ecuabet confirms that it is domiciled and authorized by the island of Anjouan, a jurisdiction located in the Comoros archipelago, south of Africa. However, according to the document cited by Primicias, the license under which the company operated would have expired in May 2025, so it would no longer appear as authorized by the gaming control authority of that island.
Corporate scheme under investigation
The complaint also describes the existence of a business network composed of 42 individuals and legal entities, including the foundations Prosperar, Prosperar Salud, and Culturarte, as well as more than thirty people linked as shareholders or legal representatives. All of them, according to the report, would be associated through the same lawyers.
One of the highlighted elements is the unusual growth in income of the Prosperar Salud foundation. Based on information from the Industrial Classification Code (CIIU), the Board indicates that the organization would have gone from USD 34 million in 2022 to USD 95 million in 2024, which fuels suspicion that, since 2023, companies linked to sports betting would have migrated their operations towards foundation structures.
Background and previous questions
This is not the first case involving Ecuabet with any of these foundations. In 2022, a previous process revealed that the company maintained an agency contract with the Prosperar Foundation, in a file where it was accused of unfair competition for offering gambling such as online casinos, an activity prohibited in Ecuador.
According to Primicias, the Superintendence of Economic Competition analyzed that complaint and rejected Ecuabet’s argument that it operated non-profit due to its donations to the Prosperar Foundation. According to that agency, such contributions would have been used to obtain tax exemptions, which raised questions about the nature of the “alleged donations.”
The case goes to the Prosecutor’s Office
For now, the Board of Charity has forwarded the complete file to the Attorney General’s Office, which must determine if there are grounds to initiate a criminal investigation.
Tags: Ecuador, iGaming Ecuador, Ecuabet, online betting Ecuador