Playtech

History

Playtech was founded in 1999 by Teddy Sagi in Tartu, Estonia, with partners from the casino, software engineering and multimedia industries. Playtech launched its first casino product in 2001, and since then it has grown to become the world’s leading and largest international designer, developer and licensor of web and mobile application software to the digital gaming industry, whose customers are most of the blue chip companies in this industry (William Hill, Ladbrokes, Bet365 in the UK, Snai and Sisal in Italy, etc.), as well as governments and regulated agencies.; In March 2006, Playtech was floated successfully on the AIM market at a valuation of approximately US$ 950 million (approximately £550 million).

After the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, the company's stock suffered a one-day fall of over 40%.

On 22 October 2008, Playtech announced that it would acquire private assets from Teddy Sagi in return for $250 million. Then in March 2011, Playtech bought PT Turnkey Services from Teddy Sagi for £125m.

In July 2012, Playtech moved its listing to the Main Market of the LSE from AIM. In the September rebalance, Playtech was included within the FTSE 250 Index.

On July 2013, Playtech acquired PokerStrategy.com, one of the largest poker communities in the world with almost 7 million members, from etruvian Holdings Ltd for $49.2 million.

In August 2014, Playtech joined the Gambling Business Group, a trade organization formed to represent the interests of the UK gambling community, to support and advise the GBG issues and industry.

In September 2014, Playtech announced the acquisition of Aristocrat Lotteries from Aristocrat Leisure Limited, in a EUR €10.5 million deal.

In January 2015, many Playtech-powered casino sites announced they were leaving the German market.

In February 2015 it was announced that Playtech acquired YoYo Games, the maker of GameMaker: Studio game development software, for £10.65 million (USD$16.4 million).

It was revealed in June 2015 that Playtech would acquire the online foreign exchange trader Plus500 for a fee of $699 million. This planned deal was terminated in November 2015.

In May 2016 Playtech acquired Swedish online game developer Quickspin. The first payment of €24m will represent 100% of the shares of Quickspin on a cash free debt free basis with the remaining €26m to be paid on an earn-out basis depending on Quickspin's EBITDA over the course of 2017 and 2018.

In July 2016 Playtech acquired rival operator Best Gaming Technology (BGT) for €138m, as betting groups continue to react to the wave of consolidation that has swept through the industry.

Playtech branched out into Romania in January 2017 with the opening of its casino studio based in Bucharest designed to provide live casino games to local online gambling operators.

Operations

Playtech employs more than 5,000 people (February 2016) in 13 countries and territories.

iPoker

iPoker is Playtech's poker platform. It was implemented in the UK by casino game designer Geoff Hall, inventor of Blackjack Switch and currently has more than 60 members of staff.

The network works using a skin-based system. This simply means that each site on the network has its own skin of the underlying poker interface; the lobby, table layout and design are all exactly the same. However, each site can apply its own colour scheme and branding. Most importantly in order to maintain the liquidity needed to operate a successful poker network, each of these skins shares the same player pool. As of April 2014 the network had 30 active skins.