Shalom Meckenzie (Hebrew: שלום מקנזי; Born June 12th, 1976) is an Israeli businessman largest individual shareholder in DraftKings.[1][2]
According to Forbes, as of 2024, Mackenzie is estimated to be worth 1.4 billion dollars.[3]
Biography
Shalom Meckenzie was born and raised in Bat Yam. His father was a real estate entrepreneur, and his mother was a housewife. During his childhood, between 1986 and 1988, Meckenzie moved with his family to reside in the US due to his father's business endeavors.
Meckenzie has been developing technology infrastructure for the gambling industry since 2002. In 2003, he was one of the founders of 10bet—an online gambling website. In 2007, he founded SBTech, a company developing gambling software for casinos, gambling websites, government lotteries, and more. In 2020, SBTech had over 1200 employees, had offices in 11 locations, and operated in 15 regulated markets.[4][5] The company won an award for "Sports Betting Supplier of the Year" from Gaming Intelligence, a magazine that covers the gambling industry.[6]
By 2014, Meckenzie had left his position in SBTechs' administration but remained the company's largest shareholder. In April 2020, SBTech completed a reverse merger involving DraftKings, an American daily fantasy sports contest and sports betting company, and Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company that went public in May 2019.[7][8] After the merger, Meckenzie became Draftkings' largest individual shareholder.[9][2] As of 2024, DraftKings is valued at 20 billion dollars in market cap.[10]
In 2021, Meckenzie purchased a Cryptopunks NFT from Sotheby's at 11.8 million dollars.[11]
Personal life
Meckenzie lives in Savyon, Israel. He is married with four children.
References
- ^ "שלום מקנזי". TheMarker. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ a b "DraftKings' Billionaire-Backed Crypto Analytics Firm CoinScan Raises $6.3M". Yahoo Finance. 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ "Shalom Meckenzie". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ "SBTech". iGB. 2020-10-08. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ Badenhausen, Kurt. "Soaring DraftKings Stock Makes Israeli Entrepreneur A Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ "THE GAMING INTELLIGENCE AWARDS". GAMING INTELLIGENCE. 4 February 2020.
- ^ "Latest SPAC: Insight into DraftKings' Listing". Nasdaq. 27 April 2020.
- ^ Pound, Jesse (2019-12-23). "Fantasy sports company and bookmaker DraftKings to become public company". CNBC. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ Shriber, Todd (2020-05-04). "Shalom McKenzie Joins DraftKings Board, Holds 34.6 Million Shares". Casino.org. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ "DraftKings Inc. (DKNG) Stock Price, News, Quote & History - Yahoo Finance". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
- ^ Genç, Decrypt / Ekin (2021-06-11). "DraftKings Billionaire: Why I Paid $11.8 Million for a CryptoPunk NFT". Decrypt. Retrieved 2024-02-17.