UK Regulated Titanbet Poker Owner Acquires VisualDNA

Teddy Sagi is on the move. The owner of the UK regulated (and wildly popular) Titanbet Poker online poker room has just acquired VisualDNA, an up to the moment London based startup. VisualDNA is a player in the very new -- and potentially enormous -- field of ad tech, which is defined as the science and management of data study through the lens of psychology. The aim of this 21st century industry is to collect and analyze data online, using responses to web posts such as personality quizzes. The results are compiled and presented to VisualDNA's clients to further their understanding of their intended audiences and enable them to accurately target their web advertising.

Alex Willcock was the founder of VisualDNA, which was originally called Imagini, and acted as its CEO until the acquisition took place. He has since left the company, and is to be replaced by the firm's former COO, Jim Purves.

VisualDNA is the latest feather in the cap of Teddy Sagi's eponymous Teddy Sagi Group. But who is Teddy Sagi himself? First, he is an Israeli businessman, born in Tel Aviv in 1972 and now residing in London. He is also very, very rich, with an estimated net worth of some $3.7 billion, according to Forbes. This ranks him as number 534 among the richest men and women in the world (moving substantially ahead from his 2014 position as only the 687th richest), and number 8 in his native land.

How did he come by this fortune? Sagi is a self made billionaire, whose father worked as a travel agent in Tel Aviv. While still a young man, Sagi had the foresight and the daring to jump onto the fledging Internet gambling bandwagon at a time before the average person even owned a personal computer. Sagi founded Playtech, an innovative, high quality software development company for online games of chance, in 1999, just 5 years after the very first virtual casino was launched in cyberspace by his eventual rival, Microgaming.

Today, Playtech is headquartered in the Isle of Man and is claimed to be the largest supplier of gambling software and services in the world. Playtech produces software for a wide variety of Internet gambling venues, including online casinos; Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette games hosted by live dealers in real time; online bingo halls; virtual poker rooms, among them the previously mentioned Titanbet Poker; scratch "cards;" arcade games and gambling for smart phones and tablets.

Sagi retains a 33.6 percent share in the thriving software company, which has been publicly traded on the London AIMStock Exchange since 2006, maintains offices in a dozen countries throughout Europe and Asia and boasts approximately 3500 employees on its staff.

And that is just the beginning. Teddy Sagi is also the owner of Market Tech Holdings, which is led by Charles Butler as CEO. This a major real estate corporation which in turn owns 11 acres of London's famous and extremely successful tourist attraction Camden Market, as well as Stables Market and Camden Lock Developments. Camden Market, with its stalls and shops selling a medley of wares that range from fast food to clothes, handicrafts, and tchotchkes, is considered to be second only to Buckingham Palace in attracting sightseers. He acquired the company for the princely sum of 664 million US dollars in March of 2014 and has continued to invest in the area.

As of spring 2015, his holdings comprise four out of the total six sections of the market. Not surprisingly, this go-getter's acquisitions are considered the most important part of Camden Market. Sagi's future plans for the area include an injection of close to 500 million in American dollars in order to build it up over the next three years. Butler states that the company envisions the future of Camden Market to become "a world-class living, working, retail and leisure destination."

In March 2015, Market Tech paid 32 million pounds for a 75 percent stake in the German company glispa which deals in digital marketing and mobile advertising. As a result of the purchase agreement, Glispa intends to open a branch office in the Camden Market area, to provide marketing solutions for its own brands.

The following month, Market Tech acquired Utopia Village, an office complex close to the entrance to Camden Market. The price paid was £44 million.

Despite his intense interest in Camden Market, together with his ongoing role at Playtech, Teddy Sagi is in no way a one trick -- or even a two trick -- pony. Aside from his recent interest in real estate, Sagi has been keeping himself very busy with several additional business ventures. He is the power behind SafeCharge, a firm dedicated to the secure processing of online payments, whose biggest clients are Internet gaming and gambling operations. SafeCharge made it to the London Stock Exchange last year, with its initial public offering in March 2014 which raised $125 million. It should come as no surprise that Sagi is the principal stock holder.

Another business in which Teddy Sagi, that indefatigable executive, has a majority interest is Crossrider. Crossrider specializes in the cutting edge technology of analyzing big data to optimize digital advertising web browser experience. (In other words, they could, in a way, be considered VisualDNA's competition.) The company recently went public on the LSE in September 2014, raising $75 million.

What's more, a recent Sagi Group acquisition, Adience, specializes on targeted marketing and big data as well. In the case of Adience, there is something of a twist, however. Here is the focus is on the burgeoning mobile device user audience.

Still another brand new entrant to the Teddy Sagi Group fold is Tel Aviv startup Stucco Media, acquired in May 2015 and self described as a "comprehensive e-commerce marketing platform." Cloud based, it automates the process of web advertising, keeping track of inventory and fully managing campaigns and product placement.

Also in May 2015, another arm of the Sagi enterprise, Mountain Peak Trading, put a signature on the agreement to purchase 24.79 percent of the shares of an Austrian property company. ConwertImmobilient Invest SE. One of the best known Austrian companies, Conwert is in the business of acquisition, development, marketing, leasing and selling real estate, dealing with a 3:1 mix of residential and commercial properties.

There is a less than savory side to this glowing tale. Back at the turn of the century, when the then youthful Teddy Sagi was hatching the plan that would become the Playtech software company, he was also involved in a different type of Internet based business. In 1999, he invested $150,000 in the year-old Unlimited9, a production company for porn websites. Seven years later, there was a falling out among the investors in this very profitable enterprise. Three of the partners, including Sagi, were sued by two others. It was alleged that Sagiet al had defrauded them and essentially stolen the content, according to Arnon Ben Yair's report in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on December 4, 2006.

Even earlier, in 1994, when the future executive was only 22 years old, he was arrested and eventually convicted on charges of grave deceit, bribery and insider trading in a case of widespread banking fraud involving a total of eight defendants. Sagi served nine months in jail as his punishment.

In other aspects, his life has been equally tempestuous.

Ronen Sagi, Teddy's much older stepbrother, was convicted of murder in 1983.

Until today, Teddy Sagi still continues to retain his Israeli citizenship, although he no longer lives in the Tel Aviv area of his youth. Instead, he gravitates between a spacious home in the well to do Knightsbridge section of London and Cyprus, the island which has become popular with many of the super rich due to its favorable income tax laws. However, it is uncertain whether he will be eligible for Cypriot citizenship, should he choose to apply, due to his long ago conviction for securities fraud.

The good-looking but slightly stocky Sagi has not yet married, although he is reported to have fathered one child, perhaps two. (Sources are conflicting.) According to rumor, he has been romantically involved with two of Israel's most famous beauties. One is the world class fashion model Bar Refaeli, who also used to date actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The other is the lovely Yael Nizri, former holder of the Miss Israel crown.