The RFU talked about joint social initiatives with bookmakers

The Russian Football Union works together with bookmakers to promote social initiatives. Erica Surikova, Deputy General Secretary of the RFU, told about this at the annual business breakfast of RBC.

"Our joint work with Fonbet is not only the support of clubs, but also a fairly large number of social initiatives. For example, the Steel Will festival for people with disabilities and the Football in Correctional Schools project," Surikova said.

She gave an example of another action — "Everyone is important", when during the Cup the number of spectators is multiplied by a certain amount. The funds are transferred to charitable foundations — the amount can reach about 60 million rubles per season.

Similar initiatives were carried out during hockey matches. As part of the "Assist" project, each abandoned puck in the KHL was valued at 1 thousand or 2 thousand rubles — the funds were allocated to support children's adaptive hockey. Another initiative is the "Number of Goodness": the numbers of hockey players who scored goals were summed up and multiplied by 500, and the total amount was transferred to help organizations in the hometowns of the clubs.

"It is important for us not only to donate funds, but also to draw people's attention to social problems throughout Russia. That's why we work with both large and small regional organizations, which often remain outside the focus of public attention," said Fonbet managing shareholder Valentin Golovanov.

In 2024, the company transferred more than 350 million rubles to charity, and in total more than 1.5 billion rubles were transferred to social projects.