Uri Poliavich
Uri Poliavich is a businessman, philanthropist, and the founder of Soft2Bet, a gaming turnkey solutions provider. He brings more than 13 years of leadership experience in online entertainment. Uri is mainly known as the founder of Soft2Bet, a technology company. His professional background includes international business development, strategic planning, and operational management. He is focused on people, product, and long-term vision rather than public statements.
Outside of the business sphere, Uri is recognized as a thinker and dedicated philanthropist, actively supporting educational initiatives and community projects. Industry leaders note that his approach combines vision with practical leadership, encouraging bold ideas while staying grounded in responsibility, perfectionism, and the ability to listen — characteristics that unite teams, encourage expressions of bold ideas, and put them to work to become reality. The approach combines innovation with social responsibility and an orientation toward sustainable impact.
Name
Uri Poliavich
Roles
Entrepreneur · Investor · Philanthropist
Year of Birth
1981
Position
Founder Soft2Bet
Origin
Ukraine
Contact
Milestones
1981
Uri was born in Soviet Ukraine
ca. 1995
He moved to Israel with his family, where he completed school and underwent the mandatory three-year military service.
2007–2010
Legal internship at HBW Law, specializing in international M&A transactions and real estate. This valuable experience in law and business, gained at the beginning of a professional career, was crucial for his future business ventures.
2010–2012
Vice President of Business Development at WK Group, managed operations in Central Asia and collaborated with key players in the iGaming industry.
2013–2015
Involved in different business projects
2016
Founded Soft2Bet, the project started as a tech venture, which quickly expanded and established itself internationally, with a number of licenses and platform solutions.
2020
Founded the Yael Foundation
2024
Established Soft2Bet Invest
Awards & Achievements
Recognition
September 2024
Honored as Leader of the Year at the SBC Awards
December 2024
Included in the Top 50 Most Influential Jews list — published in The Jerusalem Post
February 2025
Received the title of Executive of the Year by the Global Gaming Awards EMEA.
May 2025
#6 position in TOP 100 Most Influential People in iGaming
Leader
Colleagues and partners of Uri emphasize that as an impeccable leader, he must persevere, convey concise messages of innovation and collaboration, to ensure that any related organization can benefit from lasting success.
Innovator
Systematically keeps up with emerging trends and implements new technologies, including personalization and AI, content preference to improve product quality and user experience; focused on the sustainable, long-term impact.
Opinion Leader
Uri regularly contributes educational content about casual gaming and social trends to bring players together while creating new & higher levels of entertainment.
Philanthropist
“The very first moment the business broke even, the idea was to create something that would re-enforce childrens’ feelings about being part of the Jewish community. This is what pushed us toward creating the Yael Foundation,” states Uri Poliavich.
Community Keeper
Cares deeply about the people and places around him, regularly contributing to charitable organizations and helping those in need. He started the foundation to save children with rare diseases around the world, inspiring others to join him in this mission.
Media Mentions
“From the very first day when we started the business, we were surrounded by a small team of like-minded people, and the biggest success came when we added to the team a people that brought a lot of color, a lot of new ideas, and brought their dreams to the business.”
“I remember the feeling of hunger the most, not just hunger as a kid, but the hunger to change your life.”
“Just bring talented people and allow them to do what they want, what they passionate about.”
“For Soft2Bet, the whole business is built around diversity. This mixture of people and cultures is what really allows us to have a truly international identity, which comes from respecting others, learning a lot about other cultures and other approaches. It’s the only way for me.”
“The ability to choose the right people, to support them when they need your support and to give them the freedom to create, because they need this freedom.”
“Soft2Bet closely monitors trends, we look to see where in the world as well as where the gaming industry is going. We give players something unique – marketplaces where they can trade features with other players. For us, that's the future and why we use motivation engineering.”
Background
Uri Poliavich was born in 1981. At the age of 14, his family moved to Israel, where he completed high school and served three years in the Israeli army. These early years shaped his resilience, discipline, and drive for change. Between 2005 and 2009, he studied at Bar-Ilan University, earning a Bachelor of Law (LLB). His legal career began in commercial and real estate law, later specializing in international M&A contracts. This foundation gave him strong analytical skills and a structured approach to problem-solving.
Beyond formal education, Poliavich’s background is marked by adaptability and curiosity. A hunger for progress pushed him to seize opportunities outside of law, first in business development and later in leadership. Colleagues often note his persistence, openness to new perspectives, and ability to turn challenges into growth. Together, these experiences blend formal expertise with soft skills — determination, vision, and a commitment to building lasting value.
EDUCATION THROUGH PHILANTHROPY
Founded in 2020, the Yael Foundation invests in transformative Jewish education that fosters connection to identity and empowers the next generation of leaders.
44 Countries
Uri began this project by building a Jewish school in his hometown to support the local community. Today, Yael Foundation schools can be found all over the world.
17,000 Children
Children enjoy a well-rounded education in arts, IT, and more, while ensuring they gain both an excellent education and strong ties to their heritage.
113 Schools and Kindergartens
The Yael Foundation nurtures education at every level—from early childhood to secondary—supporting formal and informal learning like Sunday and after-school programs.
Building Identity and Leadership
Each summer, Yael Camp unites Jewish youth worldwide in a memorable experience that builds identity, belonging, and friendships across diverse cultures.
“Most people think that business drives charity initiatives, but for me, charity drives business pushing it forward.”
“The very first moment the business broke even, the idea was to create something that would allow other kids to have the feeling of being part of the Jewish community.”
“The same hunger that I felt when I was 7–10 years old, that pushed me to look for some food and for some better life—it’s still there, and it’s still pushing us.”
“The way we have pursued success since Day 1 is built on two irreplaceable pillars: Hard work and Creativity. With them, we overcome challenges steadfastly and we use our mistakes to learn.”
"This is the blessing that we got, the opportunity that we got to change things in this world."
"I had a hunger to change my life."
Uri Poliavich: Early Years and Hunger for Change
Uri Poliavich was born in 1981 in Soviet Ukraine, beginning his journey from modest surroundings. And yet, inside Uri Poliavich, there remained not a rejection of this environment, but a deeper appreciation that boundaries are needed to understand where the limits of one’s own step begin.
Early school life in Soviet Ukraine of the 1980s was defined by shortages, strictness, and unstable electricity.
In this environment, local reality imposed constant scarcity and strict frameworks that influenced how children formed their outlooks long before making professional choices. For Uri Poliavich, this meant that the sense of limitation was present from the earliest years, and the only reliable sphere that could be safeguarded from outside pressure was the personal inner world.
The hunger for change was formed gradually: first as discontent with “how things are arranged,” then as an interest in any tool that could expand possibilities. The awareness of early childhood meant looking at the “greyness” and imagining what it could become.
Later on, this feeling would require the language of decisions and projects, but in the beginning, it was almost a child’s experiment with simple contours and a basic paint box. For Uri Poliavich, it was precisely this early thirst for new grounds that became the impulse which accompanied him in the following years, when personal decisions began to change not only his own life, but also the lives of many others.
Uri Poliavich’s story begins in 1981, in Soviet Ukraine, with his first clear impression being a sense of scarcity, not so much of food, but of color. One could have said “poverty” was the most prominent feature, but more precisely, it was “greyness,” which seemed to permeate everything around and inside, and created a heavy dullness.
This background gave Uri’s childhood-self the sense that things should not be this way, that it could not always remain endlessly grey and hopeless. Perhaps, at that moment, an inner desire began ripening towards something special; and maybe not just something, but everything. Thus, Uri developed the habit of looking for a way out, not from a room, but from circumstances, and this habit later turned into a system.
Uri recalls, “What I remember most is the feeling of hunger — not only the hunger of a child, but also the hunger to change my life. I wanted to change this color, this gray color, and create something bright and colorful in my own life and in the life of my family.”
In Jewish families of that time, the choice often came down to three respected professions: doctor, lawyer, or accountant. The choice fell on jurisprudence, with its literal logic and social weight, and although it would not become Uri’s main profession, it would nevertheless help him sufficiently in the future to form himself as a strong businessman.
Uri Poliavich: The Power of Bold Choices
Years later, Uri Poliavich stumbled upon a life-changing opportunity, though he didn’t know it at the time. Perhaps unconscious impulses work like a perfect, finely-tuned internal compass, and exactly what is meant by “follow your dream.”
He recalled, “I just opened a newspaper and read about the position of business development manager in Central Asia. Before I knew it, I found myself managing a business of 100 people. It was a big adventure… And it changed my life.”
In this way, a vacancy discovered by chance turned out to be an invitation to a completely different destiny; it was a starting point and quickly advanced to Uri leading a hundred employees.
It was not a plan in the classical sense. Rather, it was a reaction to an inner impulse — to take the “blue pill” and see where it would lead.
In that same reality, there appeared a meeting that changed not only his professional trajectory but his personal one too.
It began with a simple, almost random step — a vacancy seen in a newspaper that opened the door to an unexpected career path, a moment that became the trigger for broader life changes.
He said: “I was completely absorbed by the newspaper opportunity, like in the books, if you know what I mean? So, it was a choice: the blue pill or the red pill — I took the blue pill.”
One of the defining traits of Uri Poliavich soon became clear – his ability to take bold steps with personal and professional growth. Each decision reflected not only ambition but also a long-term vision for building stability.
A few years later, Poliavich moved with his wife, Yulia Poliavich, to the Republic of Moldova, and returning to Europe, the couple faced a dilemma that seemed everyday, but the reality was strategic.
At that stage, the Poliavich family had only a small amount of money to invest, and the choice was clear-cut: either use it for a first down payment on an apartment or direct it toward building their own business. Uri Poliavich, together with his wife, Yulia, decided to take the risk and invest in entrepreneurship; this step became one of the most pivotal decisions in their lives.
The culmination of this line was the founding of Soft2Bet, a technological company that grew out of an initial step and has since preserved the spirit of a start-up. With each step, it grew into something larger yet still preserving the spirit of a new business, thanks to a clear vision, and the strong and talented people supporting Poliavich. As he has consistently emphasized, “We must choose the right people, to support them when they need our support and to give them the freedom to create, because we all need this freedom.”
The motif of risk and courage remains one of the main hallmarks of his style. The newspaper, the meeting with his wife, the choice between an apartment and a business, the founding of the company — all these steps are united by a rejection of the obvious and a readiness to turn towards an existence where results are not guaranteed. And, it was precisely this, as colleagues of his have noted, that made him more than an entrepreneur, but also a leader who inspires others.
Uri Poliavich: Leadership and Innovative Vision
After lunch, meetings get quieter, coffees cool on tables, behavioral funnel graphs are displayed on the screens, and notes on recommendation models are laid nearby. At this hour, it is easiest to talk about the future, though even harder to simplify.
Uri Poliavich willingly argues against relying on buzz words, though he admits to using a few of them himself, such as “AI”, “algorithms”, and “content” in working operations, and only then restores their shine. Not the effect of radiance, but the effect of assembly. He calls this vision — or rather, testing vision for strength, when an idea endures a table of metrics and the short pause of a team before making a decision…
And yet leadership is not reduced to technology. In conversations with colleagues, another line is heard: Uri knows how to connect strategic vision with genuine care for people. As Max Portelli, CFO, noted:
“If a good leader can insist and pass on the message of innovation and collaboration, it will ensure that any level of the organization will be able to drive on successfully. Is Uri fulfilling these factors? Definitely.”
The wording is precise, but behind it lies a process where demands and listening are not mutually exclusive.
We begin the process of leading with a short round of questions, then an analysis of strengths. A decision should be made quickly, but with all the facts; it is precisely in this way that speed should not destroy trust, but gather it.
Law school trains one to study letters and evidence, but in management, this translates as attention to detail.
One should not be pedantic, but have a habit of checking a hypothesis, of seeing a negative scenario before it happens. Sometimes the teams should close laptops and hear the voice of their leader’s path aloud, without screens. We try to break the rhythm; you can more often find the point faster by listening to the “creaks.” And where there is silence, there is a strange simplicity. To be able to find the future, you must put aside the tools of the present.
Innovation for Poliavich is not a campaign, and it is not a slide; it is a constant driver of growth that lives in the schedule. Ideas pass through short cycles, through dispute, through experiencing the metric in real time. Sometimes a decision is postponed until morning — and this too is part of speed.
In this model of leadership, fast is considered fast only when it remains clear to everyone who walks alongside and to those who will join tomorrow…
Social Mission and Philanthropy
What can a person expect to feel when they have succeeded?
Probably the confidence that the knowledge gained through hard work can be shared, multiplied, and transformed into a common good. Uri Poliavich often repeats that the strongest feeling from his childhood was hunger. Not literally the absence of food, but the drive to change life. Now this same hunger has evolved as a desire to give others what he once lacked.
For him, philanthropy is not another chapter of a report, but a continuation of a personal story. Just after the company had passed the break-even point, the idea of a foundation did not emerge as a strategic project, but as a simple human wish — to give children the chance to become one with the community. This is how the Yael Foundation appeared.
Today, the Yael Foundation is described briefly: a family foundation that, since 2020, has operated in dozens of countries and supports educational programs for thousands of children. But look closer, behind this dry wording lies the same striving for change that was born many years ago in the grey courtyards of Soviet Ukraine.
The operational logic here is simple: the foundation should support schools, kindergartens, and summer camps. Technically, these are assistance programs, subsidies for meals, and participation in educational initiatives.
Based on the conversations with employees, many have a different point of view. They talk about specific classes, about children’s voices during yard celebrations, and about how school safety becomes not a statistic but a real sense of security for parents. In Israel, in Eastern Europe, in small towns rarely visited by journalists, this endeavor is perceived as real change — quiet, but noticeable. Paradoxically, the business seems to make its way into the background.
As Uri Poliavich bluntly puts it, “Now, the Yael Foundation drives the business; it’s no longer a business that drives the foundation.” This phrase may sound unusual, especially in a world where it is customary to calculate ROI first and only then do we think about the community.
However, in this inversion lies that very understatement: the hunger for success has gradually been replaced by a hunger for meaning.
The team perceives this path not as an external obligation, but as part of a shared culture.
One colleague emphasizes: “Uri himself is also very much involved in philanthropic initiatives. He wants to distribute part of the success to those who are less fortunate. And for this, the entire team behind him fully supports and praises him for following such an approach.” (Industry Opinion Leader).
It is precisely this readiness to share that unites people around him. There is no boundary here between “work” and “charity” — they merge into one. Team meetings often end with discussions on how to combine new technological projects with the foundation’s educational initiatives, and it is precisely in such interactions that trust is born.
Success is measured not only by metrics but also by the feeling that it is shared.
There is also an international dimension. Poliavich cooperates with global leaders of the Jewish community, including Ronald Lauder, and supports initiatives for school security. In official language, this is “a guarantee of protection under conditions of rising antisemitism.” But in practice, it is about parents being able to sleep peacefully and a child having the right to go to school without fear.
In the end, Uri’s social mission appears not as a separate chapter of his biography, but as its mirror reflection. The same energy that once led him from a newspaper ad to his first business is now directly benefiting children, schools, and communities. Leadership here continues in another dimension — not in the growth of client numbers, but in how trust transforms into a shared future that is only just beginning to take shape.
Identity and the Choice of Path
In the trajectory of Uri Poliavich, questions of belonging and heritage never existed separately from professional decisions. Born into a Jewish family in Soviet Ukraine, he grew up in an environment where identity was once a private marker and a public challenge. This background formed the subtext of many of his subsequent steps — from legal practice to entrepreneurial risk. The cultural imprint of resilience and adaptability, transmitted across generations, became part of his own method of overcoming uncertainty.
Poliavich has repeatedly noted that the idea of identity is not limited to religion or ritual — above all, it is a matter of community and responsibility.
On observing how families around him relied on solidarity during transitional periods, he adapted these lessons into his professional practice. Instead of regarding identity as a limitation, he perceived it as a set of tools, such as persistence in the face of difficulties, attention to detail, and readiness to defend one’s values. In the fragmented post-Soviet environment, this perspective gave him both stability and direction.
A key moment came in his student years, when he had to choose between the conditional, yet safe ‘known’, and the entirely unexplored, ‘unknown’. Friends and colleagues with similar backgrounds often opted for emigration or cautious professional roles. However, Poliavich interpreted his heritage differently; for him, the notion of continuity meant that risks should be taken not to preserve the past but to create new opportunities.
This personal experience explains why his later career often included expanding across geographies and disciplines. He never regarded identity as an obstacle to integration; on the contrary, it was a portable framework.
Whether negotiating in Central Asia or consulting on emerging markets, he brought with him the ability to mediate, to recognize diversity, and to build trust. Each step was an echo of that early choice: to let identity guide but never confine him.
It is also telling that his personal life intersected with this line. Encounters with different cultural contexts reinforced his conviction that identity must develop through dialogue. In conversations with colleagues, he emphasized that resilience means not only defense but also openness.
To accept risk, to redefine roles, to expand horizons — all these actions were based on the conviction that experience gives strength only when it is transformed into action.
Poliavich himself formulates this even more simply and directly: “This is the blessing that we got, the opportunity that we got to change things in this world.”
His words sound like an acknowledgment that, once a certain height has been reached, a person can no longer see the world as before — horizons can expand irreversibly, and along with them grows the scale of aspirations.