The lush life of the crypto-bet billionaire who dodged an Estonian kidnap plot
The first time most Australians would have heard of low-profile billionaire Tim Heath was when news broke this week that the gaming mogul had been targeted in a daring abduction attempt in Estonia.
Heath has lived in Estonia across two decades, building a personal fortune through his online casino and sports betting businesses Bitcasino.io, Sportsbet.io and Moneyball.
Australian-born billionaire Tim Heath with cricket legend Brett Lee and friends.
The Melbourne University graduate and former Trinity College resident was recently described on a YouTube video promoting his casino as “the Tony Stark of Estonia, the Australian-born Cricket loving crypto king that’s all about only living once”.
The Warracknabeal-born 46-year-old has maintained a wide group of friends in Melbourne, who refer to the strong-framed cricket lover and poker-mad former Scotch College graduate as “Beef” – a play on his surname befitting his strong build.
Heath’s unfortunate experience was revealed by investigative newspaper Eesti Ekspress. The paper reported that on July 29 this year, a group of “foreign nationals” entered Heath’s apartment building in the Tallinn old town, beat him up and then unsuccessfully tried to pull him into a car.
His Australian-based mother declined to comment, while his older brother did not return calls.
Heath said in a recent promotional video that he travelled home to Australia to see his family every year and often to see his beloved Geelong play finals
A source close to Heath, speaking anonymously to maintain their privacy, told this masthead that the quick-witted Australian was not now in Estonia and had also not recently returned to Australia.
Only weeks before the kidnapping attempt, Heath had married his girlfriend at a lavish event at a mountaintop fortress on the idyllic Croatian island of Hvar, with many friends from Australia in attendance.
A few weeks after the kidnappers’ attack, Heath was notably missing from the opening bash for his new bricks-and-mortar casino, Bombay Club in Tallinn.
Hvar, in Croatia.
Heath had a lot to lose had he not fought off his would-be kidnappers.
Through his online gaming sites, he has built a fortune estimated at $2.27 billion in his debut on the AFR Rich List this year. Like the Melbourne-based online cryptocurrency casino Stake.com founders, billionaires Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, Heath was an early mover in the crypto world and was able to ride the upside of the massive increase in interest in platforms that accept cryptocurrency for bets.
Heath was also able to build his fortune thanks to the large number of highly skilled tech workers in Estonia and its loose regulations around online gaming. His businesses are now sponsors for São Paulo FC and English Premier League teams Arsenal and Newcastle United.
A lover of whisky, he has also enjoyed the trappings of his success, with lavish holidays and travel to sporting events. In more recent years, he bought a super yacht.
Heath is also known as a prolific investor in other business projects, including being a shareholder in ASX-hopeful Dabble, a sports betting platform that also counts Tabcorp and Craig Hutchison’s Sports Entertainment Network as shareholders.
Heath’s investment business Yolo employs 900 people and has shares in more than 100 companies that specialise in gaming for new technologies.
When asked about the kidnapping attempt, a spokeswoman for Yolo Group said: “The event in question is a personal matter and Yolo Group’s business operations remain entirely unaffected. The founder has no involvement in day-to-day company operations.”
In an interview this year on Youtube, with Estonian start-up promoters Latitude 59, Heath revealed how he came to be based in the chilly former Soviet-occupied country, explaining that he arrived in 2002 after a stint backpacking along the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Tallinn old town
“After university, all my mates sort of went to London to work as stockbrokers or lawyers and whatever else, and I saw that there was the Russian poker championships in Moscow, so I caught a plane to Hong Kong and a train through to Moscow,” he said. “I got robbed, fell in love, drank vodka.
“I was quite heavily playing online poker, and I thought this is actually a really good business model here, and searching around, Estonia was probably the most progressive IT country I’ve seen in my life.”
Along with establishing a large business in Estonia, Heath has built strong friendship networks in his adopted country and has endeavoured to introduce a functioning cricket competition in the country, helping to set up the Estonian Cricket Association.
Heath is also a proud supporter of the Tallinn Hippos, with Sportsbet.io listed as the team’s sponsor.
Australian cricket legend Brett Lee’s Sydney Beer Co is also listed as a sponsor of the team, and Lee has appeared in private social media posts with Heath at cricket matches.
Lee and Sydney Beer Co were contacted for comment.
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