Although one of the world´s leading casino software developers and operators Playtech is not an Estonian company per se, all of their software development and system operation is done by a 200-strong team of Estonians. As such congratulations go to their whole team on their last weeks hugely successful IPO on London AIM, which was 5 times oversubscribed and valued them at 550 million pounds (965 million dollars).
The largest Estonian shareholder and local founder Rain Kivistik had a 6,4% ownership in the company, which means he will make personally around 35 million euros – about the same, as all 4 of the Skype´s Estonian founders each made.
The implications for Estonia are the same as for Skype: having a big part of an internationally successful tech company here brings more know-how and experience about that field to us. As people from Skype and Playtech will move to other companies or found their own startups, they bring that experience with them. There will now be also more financing from the founders cash chest available for other startups.