Johann Graf was a trained butcher who turned a pinball import business into Novomatic, a gaming group that reported 3.45 billion euros in revenue in 2024. Forbes now lists him as a self-made billionaire worth about 10.6 billion dollars. The story starts in a pub trade, not a boardroom.
Who is Johann Graf?
Johann Graf is the Austrian founder and owner of Novomatic, born in Vienna on January 3, 1946. He completed an apprenticeship as a butcher and became Austria's youngest master butcher at 23. His parents ran a butcher's shop with a pub and a few guest rooms, and he was expected to take it over. He chose not to.
Forbes describes him as raised in modest circumstances and self-made. He is also known for avoiding the spotlight, which is part of why his name is less famous than the brands he built.
How did a butcher end up in gaming machines?
He got in through pubs. In 1974 Graf co-founded Brodnik & Graf, a firm that imported pinball machines from Belgium for Austrian pubs and cafes. Pinball was a simple product with a clear customer: the owner of a bar who wanted something that paid for itself.
From there he moved from importing to making. In 1980 he founded Novomatic Automatenhandels GmbH with starting capital of 50,000 schillings. The company is still headquartered in Gumpoldskirchen, Lower Austria.
How did Novomatic grow into a global group?
It grew by selling machines across borders and then buying the businesses around them. Wikipedia notes an early success in Switzerland, where a sales company Graf was involved with came to hold about 70 percent of the market by the early 1980s. Forbes adds that he took advantage of opportunities in Eastern Europe after the Iron Curtain fell.
Later deals widened the group. It bought Greentube, a studio that now serves as its online content publisher, in 2010, and the Australian machine maker Ainsworth Game Technology in 2018. Its Admiral brand runs gaming venues in many regions. The company says it operates in about 50 countries.
| Milestone | Detail |
|---|---|
| 1946 | Graf is born in Vienna |
| 1974 | Brodnik & Graf imports Belgian pinball machines |
| 1980 | Novomatic founded with 50,000 schillings |
| 2010 | Greentube acquired |
| 2018 | Ainsworth Game Technology acquired |
| 2024 | Record revenue of 3,453.4 million euros |
How big is Novomatic now?
Novomatic reported record revenue of 3,453.4 million euros in 2024, up 6.3 percent on the year before. The group has more than 26,200 employees and runs over 2,100 gaming venues worldwide. It also has production sites in 12 countries and technology centers in 18.
Compare that with 2021, when Wikipedia lists revenue at 1.84 billion euros. The jump is large, and part of it comes from acquisitions and growth in markets such as the United Kingdom and Central and Eastern Europe. Gaming operations drove much of the 2024 increase.
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What is Novomatic known for in online casino?
Novomatic is best known for slots that started in physical venues and later moved online. Book of Ra, an Egyptian-themed slot released in 2005, is the best-known example, and it became a cult favorite in casinos and online. Greentube carries that catalog into the online world, so a player on a web casino may be spinning a game with roots in an Austrian pub machine.
If you want to know how those games pay out, our guide to RTP in iGaming explains what the return figure on a slot means.
Where does Graf sit among iGaming's richest people?
He is one of the wealthiest founders in the industry, and one of the few whose fortune comes from machines rather than an online brand. For a wider view of who else is on that list, see our ranking of the richest people in iGaming. For another founder story that starts with a family business and a platform, read how Mark Scheinberg built PokerStars.
The bottom line
Graf's path was unglamorous. He learned a trade, walked away from it, sold a simple product to pubs and kept moving up the chain from importer to manufacturer to operator. Four decades later the group has more than 26,200 employees and 3.45 billion euros in yearly revenue.
The lesson for anyone building in this space is that a business can start small and boring as long as it serves a real customer. If you want to launch your own casino platform without building the technology from scratch, see our pricing for what a white-label setup costs today.
Key takeaways
- Johann Graf, born in Vienna in 1946, completed a butcher's apprenticeship and became Austria's youngest master butcher at age 23, but chose not to continue the family business.
- In 1974 he co-founded Brodnik & Graf, which imported Belgian pinball machines for pubs and cafes, and in 1980 he founded Novomatic Automatenhandels GmbH with starting capital of 50,000 schillings.
- Novomatic is headquartered in Gumpoldskirchen, Lower Austria, and bought the online studio Greentube in 2010.
- In 2024 the group reported record revenue of 3,453.4 million euros, more than 26,200 employees and over 2,100 gaming venues worldwide.
- Forbes lists Graf as a self-made billionaire with a net worth of about 10.6 billion dollars, though wealth estimates move with the market.
