Waterhouse Venture Capital: Industry Leaders in the Spotlight

## Waterhouse Venture Capital: Industry Leaders in the Spotlight – Individuals – iGB

In the most recent article, Tom Waterhouse, chief of Waterhouse Venture Capital, concentrates on three industry trailblazers and delves into their tales of triumph.

**Home > Individuals > Waterhouse Venture Capital: Industry Leaders in the Spotlight**

Waterhouse Venture Capital: Industry Leaders in the Spotlight
Every field has its exceptional figures, and the gaming sector is no exception.

This month, we’re highlighting three prominent leaders in the sector: Tim Heath, a pioneer in cryptocurrency gaming; Peter Jackson, chief executive of Flutter Entertainment; and David Walsh, renowned for being one of the world’s most prominent professional horse racing bettors.

Over the past decade, the online gaming industry has seen rapid expansion through mobile platforms. Heath and Jackson lead companies at the forefront of digital innovation in the sector.

**YOLO**
Heath, originally from Australia, is a serial gaming industry entrepreneur and venture capitalist. After graduating from college, he established a software development and e-commerce company, Heathmont.net.

In 2013, he established Coingaming Group, a cryptocurrency gaming operator and supplier, which was rebranded as Yolo Group in 2021. Yolo Group is currently best known for its large B2C gaming operators Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino.io. We previously discussed the rapid growth of cryptocurrency gaming and Sportsbet.io in our newsletter.

Yolo is a seasoned corporate entity with over 600 personnel, encompassing a variety of ventures in the gambling and venture capital domain. Yolo’s B2C brands were among the pioneers in incorporating streaming into all significant sporting events and were early adopters of the now-ubiquitous “cash out” feature.

Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino.io provide players with industry-leading withdrawal speeds, as rapid as 1.5 minutes.

Heath’s commitment to customer satisfaction has propelled Sportsbet.io to become one of the leading cryptocurrency betting operators worldwide. The company boasts a monthly turnover exceeding $2.7 billion. For perspective, the largest operator in Australia averages a monthly turnover of $1.2 billion in 2023, holding roughly 50% of the market share in the nation.

What’s on the horizon for him? He aims to transform the international payments landscape, which presently relies heavily on the SWIFT system. He believes SWIFT harbors inefficiencies, such as delays and a lack of privacy.

**Global Supremacy**

Concurrently, Jackson has served as CEO of Flutter Entertainment since January 2018. Under his guidance, the company’s valuation has doubled, and it now stands as the largest publicly listed gambling company globally. Only Bet365, privately owned by the Coates family, rivals Flutter in global reach.

Flutter is the sole publicly listed B2C betting operator within the Waterhouse VC portfolio.

Jackson earned his degree in manufacturing engineering from Cambridge University and spent three years at McKinsey sharpening his abilities. He then joined Halifax Bank of Scotland, taking on a variety of positions until it was purchased by Lloyds Bank in 2009.

At the age of 34, he was named chief executive of foreign exchange firm Travelex. He led the company for five years, increasing revenues and ultimately overseeing its sale for £1 billion. From 2013, he served on the board of Betfair, and five years later was appointed CEO of Flutter.

Early in his time at the company, Jackson recognized the significance of scale and efficiency in a highly taxed and regulated industry. Utilizing his experience in consulting and banking, Jackson developed operations, guiding the respective markets through organic expansion and mergers and acquisitions (e.g., MaxBet and Junglee Games).

The Flywheel Effect
By utilizing Flutter Group’s broader global industry knowledge, technology development, customer insights and data analytics, each of Flutter’s divisions benefits from a “flywheel” effect.

This flywheel has driven an 11x revenue increase for Flutter’s US business, FanDuel, from $300 million in 2018 to approximately $3.3 billion in 2022, where it now holds a leading 37% market share.

Jackson played a key role in Flutter’s recent dual listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:FLUT).

This corporation debuted on the American stock exchange on the twenty-ninth of January this year, opening a pathway to access the US capital market and streamlining the process of offering stock-based incentives to American workers.

Traditionally, American equities have consistently been valued more highly than other global stock markets. Flutter’s investors will gain from this elevated valuation, and the enterprise can leverage its premium valuation to procure cheaper supplementary funds.

MONA

The gaming industry provides amusement at a price. Only a select few individuals can wager lucratively – they don’t require payment for entertainment.

We are of the opinion that there are no more than fifty gambling collectives worldwide that can triumph on a grand scale. David Walsh is regarded as one of the most successful bettors globally, and he collaborated with Zeljko Ranogajec to establish a team.

The team places wagers on horse racing, sports, lotteries, casinos, and financial markets across the globe. The team’s annual revenue is purportedly in excess of three billion dollars. However, certain estimations place their global turnover significantly higher.

Walsh invested seventy-five million dollars to establish the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). For his contributions, Walsh was bestowed with the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his exceptional contributions to visual arts and his support for diverse cultural, charitable, athletic, and educational organizations.

Can newly formed groups contend with this?

Skilled gamblers possess exceptional intellect and remarkable abilities. They possess a profound comprehension of the intricate workings of every sporting event, casino game, or lottery.

They can model numerous variables to forecast the genuine likelihood of a result. They can then combine all these variables to operate a professional wagering enterprise, which necessitates managing a substantial workforce.

Particularly in the racing industry, teams of specialists in mathematics, statistics, and computer science regularly develop, maintain, and refine algorithms that analyze extensive historical racing data and race-specific individual factors – such as track conditions, jockey statistics, splits, weather, and lineage – to guide betting decisions.

As mentioned previously, racing betting groups also gain an edge by receiving discounts on bets regardless of the outcome. To qualify for these discounts, groups must wager significant sums of money. Discounts effectively enhance their existing “advantage,” making it increasingly challenging for emerging groups to compete in racing.

Waterhouse VC is a fund for institutional investors that specializes in investing in global publicly traded and privately held companies involved in betting and gaming.

Since its launch in August 2019, Waterhouse VC has generated a total return of 2,858% as of February 29, 2024, assuming all distributions are reinvested.

Sign up for the iGaming newsletter.