Amaya Acquires PokerStars for $4.9 Billion: The Inside Story

Amaya, a Montreal-based company, bought Rational Group, the owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, for $4.9 billion in August 2014. This acquisition marked the end of an era for PokerStars founders Mark and Isai Scheinberg. Mark Scheinberg, a Canadian born in Israel, and his father Isai founded PokerStars. The company was originally operated from Costa Rica, with Isai Scheinberg developing software in Toronto.

PokerStars moved to the Isle of Man and became the world's largest poker room. The company's rise to prominence was fueled by the poker boom in the US, which began in 2003 when Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Tennessee, won the World Series of Poker main event after qualifying online via PokerStars. PokerStars continued advertising on US television despite the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006.

In 2011, federal prosecutors shut down the US site of PokerStars, charged Isai Scheinberg, and settled for $731 million. Mark Scheinberg, the largest shareholder of PokerStars, received $4.1 billion from the sale. Now, David Baazov, the CEO of Amaya, is in charge of PokerStars. Baazov, then 33, proposed a deal to Blackstone Group to buy Amaya shares at $18 each, despite them being worth less than $7 at the time. Amaya's stock price has increased by 2,600% since Baazov took over in 2010. Baazov's personal stake in Amaya, now worth $800 million, is 12.5% of the company.