Three online gambling billionaires
News on 19 Sep 2017
News on 19 Sep 2017
The publication Dispatch Tribune published its list of the three wealthiest online gambling executives this week, naming former Rational Group and Pokerstars owner Mark Scheinberg (44) as the wealthiest with a personal net worth of $4.5 to $5 billion.
The US-Israeli entrepreneur lives on the Isle of Man and set up PokerStars alongside his father Isai in 2001. Catching the rising tide of online poker perfectly and shrewdly promoting and marketing the product, the company grew rapidly and survived industry trauma such as 2011’s Black Friday to dominate the international online poker market.
In a surprising move, the Scheinbergs sold the Rational Group to the relatively unknown Canadian businessman David Baazov and his Amaya group for a reported $4.9 billion in 2014. Scheinberg lives a low-profile life and was recently reported by Forbes as moving into property development with a the upmarket Centro Canalejas Madrid project in Spain.
Denise Coates (50), who founded and heads bet365, has built the online gambling group from a garage operation into one of the most successful enterprises in the industry. Her personal fortune is reportedly $4.1 billion…a far cry from the GBP 15 million she secured against the collateral of her family’s retail betting shop business to expand the rapidly growing internet group she had founded.
While at school, Coates started work in the cashiers’ department within the family bookmaking firm, where she would mark up bets. After leaving Sheffield University with a degree in econometrics she trained as an accountant in the family business, before taking over the management of the small chain of betting shops, improving the retail business before selling it in 2005 to Coral group for GBP 40 million, which paid off the loan she had taken to grow the internet enterprise.
Honoured with government accolades and honours, she is respected as one of Britain’s foremost businesswomen, and continues to balance an outstanding career in business with the responsibilities of a wife and mother of four.
Third on the Dispatch Tribune list is Israeli entrepreneur Teddy Sagi (46), the founder and hitherto major shareholder in online gambling software and games provider Playtech plc. Following problems with the Israeli authorities over bond manipulation in the ‘nineties, Sagi settled down and exploited the early advance of internet gambling with his Playtech online enterprise, rapidly growing the business into one of the top providers in the online gambling industry.
He branched out into advertising, marketing and payment processing with SafeCharge and other related acquisitions, but his current focus appears to be on property development, where his moves have included the acquisition of Camden Market Holdings, owner of Camden Market, Stables Market and Camden Lock Developments in London, which he bought in March 2014 for GBP 400 million.
