Each day, countless gamblers worldwide log onto online casinos to access the latest and best games, promotions, and rewards programs.
Despite this, players often give little thought to the people behind these websites—those who put their blood, sweat, tears, and substantial investments into making the sites a reality.
While there are plenty of online casinos today, those that stand out do so primarily because of their founders’ visions for what a great online casino experience should be.
To give you an idea of who these individuals are, here are the founders of three of the biggest online casino companies.
Denise Coates (Bet365)
Chances are you’ve already heard of Denise Coates. And, if you haven’t, you’ve most likely heard about her website, Bet365, one of the oldest and biggest online casinos and betting sites.
Available in over 200 countries, it is home to over 80 million registered players and processes over $65 billion in wagers yearly.
Starting her career following an econometrics degree from the University of Sheffield, Denise began working for her family’s small bookmaking company. Dealing with accounts, she eventually took over several of their small betting locations.
By 2000, Denise decided to expand the business and sought a £15 million loan—an astonishing figure at the time. She injected all this money into purchasing the bet365.com domain for $25,000 and developing software for her site.
Her vision carried the company through, and it eventually exploded into one of the biggest and most trustworthy online gambling sites. As of 2022, the company is valued at around $8.62 billion.
Denise’s personal gain from the company also reflects how well it (and she) is doing. She is listed as the highest-paid CEO in the world, earning more than three times that of Apple’s CEO. Figures from 2019 show that she received a salary of $422 million, bringing her net worth up to $12.2 billion.
Despite her wealth, she is an incredibly generous woman and founded the Bet365 Foundation in 2012. Since renamed the Denise Coates Foundation, it has provided financial aid to numerous charities throughout the UK.
Isai Scheinberg (PokerStars)
While PokerStars went through a spout of legal troubles and controversy in 2011, there is no doubt that it remains one of the largest online casino platforms. The company is now owned by Flutter Entertainment, an online gambling brand worth $24.48 billion.
It is credited to a gifted mathematician named Isai Scheinberg. Attending Moscow State University on a scholarship and graduating with a master’s degree in mathematics, Isai returned to his homeland of Israel to work for the Defence Force.
While helping design new weapons, Isai fell in love with poker and came up with the idea of an online poker site. Years later, after moving to Canada to work for IBM, he decided to launch a site demonstrating his skill in the game and programming.
Isai wrote his own software and created PokerStars alongside his son Mark in 2000. Wishing to give players a taste of online poker, he developed a free play feature on the site that didn’t pay winnings but also didn’t require any player deposit.
Three months later, the site officially launched after an incredible uptake of players and allowed players to bet real money. The site grew rapidly and soon added features like real cash money slots and tournaments.
Although the site was successful and managed to escape any real trouble during its 2011 scuffle with authorities, Isai sold it to the Stars Group (also known as Amaya Inc.) for $4.9 billion in 2014.
Since the sale, Isai had kept a low profile aside from 2020, when he pled guilty to operating illegally following the Department of Justice’s ban on online gambling in 2006. He was fined just $30,000 and now spends his days out of the spotlight.
His son, however, is still active and most recently invested some of his PokerStars earnings into real estate and the hospitality industry.
Shaked and Ben-Yitzhak Brothers (888 Holdings)
888 Holdings is easily one of the world’s most prominent online gambling names. The company, valued at a surprisingly low $1 billion, is the owner of brands like William Hunt, 888casino, 888poker, 888sport, 888bingo, Mr Green, and Sports Illustrated Sportsbook. As the names suggest, these sites cover the full spectrum of online betting, including sports betting and casinos.
The company was the brainchild of a pair of twin brothers, Avi and Aaron Shaked, who started it as Virtual Holdings. Aaron originally came up with the idea for the site after visiting a casino in Monte Carlo for a dentistry conference.
After Avi approached his brother with the idea, the twins spent endless hours in casinos learning how different games worked. They then approached brothers Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak. Shay, a software engineer with a computer science degree, initially coded all the programs that launched the casino in 1997.
Soon after, the business took off and was renamed to the famous 888 series of brands in 2005. All four brothers continued developing the company until, one by one, they left to pursue personal interests. The last to help run the group’s operations was Shay, who left in 2006. All four brothers, however, still own shares.
Since handing the group’s operations over to trusted employees, the brothers have mostly kept a low profile. The only one still in the public light is Avi, who is heavily involved in Israeli politics.
