Failed Kidnapping Attempt of a Bitcoin Casino Mogul

In August this year, the swanky Bombay Club casino in Tallinn, Estonia had its grand opening party.

To the surprise of many of the guests the casino’s billionaire owner, tech entrepreneur Tim Heath didn’t make an appearance. This is despite Heath living on the same street as the casino in Tallin’s Old Town.

We now know why.

Only days earlier he had fought off a kidnapping attempt at his apartment. Details of the ordeal have only just come to light in a bail hearing for one the accused kidnappers – Georgian national Ilgar Mamedov.

In a plot resembling the opening scenes of a Hollywood heist movie, a group of men dressed as painters in high-vis uniforms, broke in to Heath’s apartment on 29 July intending to abduct him.

The group’s planning of the abduction was described by Estonian police as meticulous, having been carried out over a period of months. They had been carefully monitoring his movements for some time, even attaching a tracking device to his car. The plan was to take Heath to a hideout located 60 kms outside of Tallinn and hold him there while extracting a ransom.

What they didn’t plan on was Heath managing to fight them off before they could drag him into the getaway car.

Tim Heath hails from country Victoria in Australia, born in the wheat belt town of Warracknabeal in the state’s North-West. He was schooled at the prestigious Scotch College in Melbourne (where he wouldn’t have looked out of place in the front row of the 1st XV rugby team) before going on to graduate from Melbourne Uni with a bachelors degree in IT and Commerce in 2002.

Since then, his rise the world tech world has been meteoric. The AFR estimates his net worth at $2.27 billion, with stakes held in numerous gaming and crypto-related fintech companies via the Yolo Group (formerly Coingaming).

The Yolo Group has around 1,000 employees, largely concentrated in gaming hubs of Malta, Isle of Man, Philippines and Estonia as well as emerging markets of Brazil and Argentina.

Included in the Yolo stable of companies, or the ‘Yoloverse‘ as they call it are:

• general investment vehicle Yolo Investments,
• crypto-sportsbook Sportsbet.io,
• crypto-casinos Bitcasino.io and Slots.io,
• an affiliate program for these and other properties at Partners.io
• an online casino game integration platform named Hub88
• a live dealer casino games provider named Live88.io (formerly Bombay Live)

There’s also the recently opened Bombay Club Hotel and Casino in Tallinn.

Heath is no longer residing at his Tallinn apartment.