Evolution Gaming share price has risen 200pc since the start of the pandemic
They are among Britain’s most secretive billionaires, with a portfolio that spans some of the world’s most lavish properties.
Over the past 30 years Ian and Richard Livingstone have quietly amassed a multibillion-pound empire that includes the West Palm Beach Marriott hotel in Florida and Cliveden, the Buckinghamshire country house turned hotel where John Profumo met Christine Keeler.
But their shrewdest bet by far is a very different kind of investment.
The Livingstone brothers’ stake in Evolution Gaming, an online gambling business that has surged in popularity during the pandemic, has delivered 5,000pc returns since they became shareholders.
A Swedish business that fills studios in Eastern Europe with cameras and croupiers to run remote casino games for companies such as Betfair and William Hill, Evolution Gaming has skyrocketed in value over the past year with its share price rising 200pc.
The lockdown boom in remote gambling has seen the brothers’ 8.6pc stake in Evolution soar in value to almost $3bn (£2.1bn).
Their early investment in the business, accrued at least six years ago before it floated in 2015, saw Richard listed as a founder in its prospectus thanks to his 16.5pc stake. It is Ian, however, who sits on Evolution’s board.
“They have a strong position in a very attractive market niche in online gaming,” says Martin Arnell, a senior equity analyst at DNB Markets. “So far there is no competitor who has been able to match Evolution’s strong live casino product.”
Ian (pictured with his wife Natalie) and Richard Livingstone began amassing their wealth by buying West End property in the 1990s
Credit: David M. Benett/Getty Images for Walpole
The Livingstones’ combined fortune is now worth more than $7.2bn, Bloomberg has estimated, despite the pandemic forcing many of the hotels in their London & Regional property empire to close their doors.
“Ian and Richard are very tight and therefore they make their decisions together quickly and have spotted trends and built their empire methodically,” says Simon Cooke, the head of real estate investment manager APAM, who has known the pair for decades.
The sons of an Ealing dentist, the brothers took divergent routes earlier in their careers. Ian, now 58, became an optometrist while Richard, 56, chose to become a chartered surveyor.
Ian showed an early flair for entrepreneurship, starting his own chain of opticians before buying the David Clulow chain out of receivership in 1992.
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Richard spent years learning the property world, a handy education for his future empire. “Richard was not the typical university graduate,” says Cooke, who managed the younger Livingstone brother when he worked as a chartered surveyor at Richard Ellis in the Eighties.
“He was clearly of an intellect and had a commercial capability, which was inbuilt and inherent,” Cooke says. “Often very bright people coming from university don’t have that. Richard from day one was clearly going to be a very successful dealmaker.”
The brothers teamed up in the early Nineties to begin buying property as prices slumped, long before foreign investors flooded the market with cash as they sought British real estate investments.
“They very cleverly bought quite a lot of London West End property at a time when West End property was not regarded as being as prime as it is today,” Cooke says.
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The brothers’ interests have since ventured far beyond the glitzier side of London. The pair own stakes in everything from a $700m mini-city on the banks of the Panama Canal to the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort.
The brothers are some of the country’s most private billionaires, with their personal lives so closely held that photographs of Ian at glitzy London events are frequently mislabelled as showing his younger brother Richard.
“I don’t think it’s secrecy,” Cooke says. “I think it’s common sense in a world where they don’t need media and therefore the only effects of having publicity would be seen as detrimental.”
Ian’s wife, former Tatler and OK! Magazine writer Natalie Livingstone, has embraced the spotlight. She published a history of the female owners of Cliveden in 2015, proudly telling The Jewish Chronicle the following year that “my husband Ian is a self-made man.”
Natalie Livingstone photographed at Cliveden
Credit: Andrew Crowley
In recent years, the brothers have expanded their interests. Their stake in Evolution has exploded in value to account for almost half of their estimated net worth as it has become crucial for casinos during the pandemic.
The company has not been completely unscathed, however. Evolution temporarily closed its studio in Tbilisi last year due to lockdown restrictions. Other studios including sites in Riga and Malta have remained open, helping the Livingstone brothers cash in to bankroll their property empire. They sold $500m worth of Evolution shares in July as lockdown restrictions began to ease.
The success has fuelled suggestions among technology venture capitalists that the pair may become the latest wealthy outsiders to throw themselves into the start-up world. As ever, the Livingstone brothers are playing their cards close to their chests.
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