A conflict began between investors and the founder of Arenum over profits following the success of Hamster Kombat

The partners accuse the businessman of concealing his involvement in the project. Investors believe that the game was developed with Arenum’s resources. In their opinion, Gurinovich secretly participated in the development and deliberately did not announce his involvement in Hamster Kombat.

Arenum was registered in Cyprus in 2019. It develops games and platforms for mobile e-sports. According to documents provided by the publication’s interlocutor, 60.3% of Arenum belongs to Gurinovich, the rest of the shares are distributed among other founders, including the company Adru and the Russian venture fund Startech.vc.

Investors say that after the first few years of operation, Arenum stopped publishing financial statements and until recently it was not known how the invested funds were spent.

In June 2024, the partners asked Gurinovich to clarify the connection between Arenum and Hamster Kombat, but received contradictory answers, the newspaper’s interlocutors say. To some, he told them that he had nothing to do with the project, while others said that the game was not related to Arenum and was developed using “other resources.” At the same time, the businessman registered the trademark rights to the game in his name, which aroused suspicion among investors.

Many investors had only verbal agreements, and the formal agreements did not provide for mandatory reporting, one of the people said. Some of the financial partners suggest that Gurinovich and the Adru company may have signed a private agreement to share profits. And since Hamster Kombat is not technically owned by Arenum, the investors may have no legal basis to claim a share of the profits from a successful game.

Lawyers disagree. Some of them believe that investors are entitled to a share of the profits, as the project may have used Arenum resources. Others argue that without official documents and given Gurinovich’s formal ownership of the gaming rights, they have little chance of success in legal proceedings.

• Hamster Kombat is a Telegram mini-app. It was launched in March 2024, the creators still remain anonymous.
• In June, information appeared on the Toad and Viper Telegram channel indicating a connection between CarPrice and CarMoney co-founder Eduard Gurinovich and the game.
• Two months before the launch, the domain hamsterkombat.com was registered, which contains the email address of the company Arenum. Information about the domain owner was subsequently hidden.
• Gurinovich has not publicly confirmed his involvement in the creation of the game; in May 2024, he filed an application to register the Hamster Kombat trademark and declared himself the game’s “exclusive partner” in Russia.