Posted on: December 6, 2024, 03:48h.
Last updated on: December 6, 2024, 03:48h.
On Wednesday, Playtech founder Teddy Sagi paid almost $24 million for a 1.3-acre lot in Miami Beach with 150 feet of water frontage. The property comes with over 12,300 square feet of living space, but the six-bedroom house built in 1995 won’t stand much longer.
One Sotheby’s International Realty, which handled the listing of 4521 Pine Tree Drive, told Mansion Global, a luxury real estate magazine and website, that Sagi plans to raze the current home to make way for a newly constructed, modern mansion.
“This is an oversized lot. That’s why [Sagi] loved it. He can build a big home and have a beautiful backyard,” said realtor Saddy Delgado.
The property includes a 40-foot dock that backs up to Indian Creek, with the historic Fontainebleau across the channel. Delgado said potential buyers of the property were about split on whether they would keep the house or if they thought the land was worth more without the current structure.
Sagi’s Miami Beach purchase has annual property taxes of almost $300K. Though Sagi won’t be financing the purchase, Zillow shows that a 30-year monthly payment for the home would be around $141K.
Sagi’s primary residence is in Tel Aviv’s affluent Herzliya neighborhood. He also has a residence in London’s prestigious Holborn district.
Playtech Founder Backstory
Israel-born Sagi founded Playtech in 1999. The software development company targeted the gaming industry amid the tech boom. It was a bet that paid off, making Sagi, now 51, extraordinarily wealthy.
Playtech’s early foray into online gaming established the firm as a leading developer of iGaming and interactive gambling products. Its clients include many of the world’s biggest gaming operators, including Entain, MGM Resorts, Hard Rock International, and Caesars Entertainment.
Sagi took Playtech public in 2006 on the London Stock Exchange. He controlled 81% of the outstanding shares at the time of the IPO.
By late 2018, however, Sagi had sold off his entire stake in the company. He said he remained optimistic about Playtech’s future but wanted to focus on other endeavors, specifically investments in real estate, coworking, cybersecurity, and e-commerce.
Forbes estimates Sagi’s net worth to be around $6.4 billion. For a full bio on Sagi, check out Casino.org’s exposé on the billionaire.
Property History
Sagi bought the residence from the estate of Canadian businessman Albert Reichmann, who purchased the land in 1991 for $750K and built the current home four years later.
Reichmann, along with his brothers Paul and Ralph, was a real estate magnate whose Toronto-based firm Olympia & York developed several notable financial office complexes, including the World Financial Center in New York City, London’s Canary Wharf, and Toronto’s First Canadian Place.
The Reichmann family sold Olympia & York and its real estate investment trust in 2005 for $2.1 billion to private equity giant Brookfield Asset Management. Brookfield’s massive portfolio includes Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas. It formerly owned Hard Rock Las Vegas off the Strip before selling the resort to Virgin Hotels in early 2018.
