Jason Drummond

Jason Kingsley Drummond (born June 1969) is a British technology entrepreneur. He is known for founding nine technology companies that have listed on European stock exchanges.

Jason Drummond
Born
Fulham, London, England
OccupationBusinessman
Years active1987–present
Known forFounding Virtual Internet
Net worthGBP £123 million (March 2000)[1]
Children4

Early life

Drummond was born and raised in Fulham, London. He has a younger brother, Justin, and an older brother, Nigel, with whom he grew up in a single parent household. [2]

Early business career

Whilst still attending school, Drummond sold mail-order computers and went on to establish IDL Communications Limited, a distributor of mobile phones and fax machines, shortly thereafter.[2]

Drummond spent three years outside of the UK, establishing and running distribution and new media companies in emerging markets such as Russia and Africa and returned to the United Kingdom in 1995.

In 1996 Drummond founded Virtual Internet (VI), an online intellectual property protection and web hosting services company. VI was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, in January 1999. In March 2000 Virtual Internet combined a £27 million fundraising with a move to the official list.[3]

By the age of 30, with Drummond's 69% shareholding in Virtual Internet being valued at £123 million, the Guardian described Drummond in March 2000 as "richer than all of the Spice Girls put together and virtually unknown." [4] In April 2001 however, the Telegraph calculated that Drummond's Virtual Internet shareholding had lost £104 million in value [5] and two months later, in June 2001, Drummond stood down as chief executive of Virtual Internet. [6] In February 2002 it was reported by the Independent that Drummond had agreed to sell his Virtual Internet shareholding for £6.1 million in cash [7] with the Guardian later reporting that Drummond had become involved in a tax dispute arising from the sale of some of his Virtual Internet shares. [8]

2000-2010

In November 2000, Drummond founded RegistryPro,[9] a joint venture between VI and Register.com which created the domain name .pro. In 2008, VI was acquired by UK2 Group.

In March 2000, Drummond founded Xworks Limited, an e-business incubator, which was admitted to trading on AIM in April 2001 with a market cap of £4.4m at 10p a share. In August 2002, Xworks changed its name to Gaming Corporation to reflect its principal business "casino.co.uk".

Drummond was also the founder of Coms plc (L.COMS),[10] an internet communications company. He founded the business in September 2003 and listed it on AIM in September 2006.

Drummond was a significant shareholder in Active ISP (which was later renamed to Active 24 ASA), a company which listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange In October 2004 with a market cap of NOK 270m. The company was taken over by Mamut ASA and subsequently acquired by Visma in the summer of 2011 and delisted from the Oslo Exchange.[11][12]

In March 2005, Gaming Corporation raised £14m and in May 2005 it acquired Gambling.com for $20m USD. For the year ending September 2006, Gaming Corporation made profits of £2.5m. The US SAFE Port Act later made online payments by US customers to online gaming companies illegal, causing a massive write-down in the value of Gambling.com.

Drummond was a co-founder of Betex Technologies in 2005, which later became part of Betex Group PLC. Betex was a lottery management and technology company with its main operations in China.[13]

In December 2005, Drummond also co-founded Shellworks Ltd, which was admitted to trading on AIM as Nettworx plc having raised £10m.[14]

In October 2006, Gaming Corporation changed its name to Media Corporation. The company sold Casino.co.uk to CryptoLogic for £3.62m in cash in August 2007.[15]

Drummond was a director of Metacharge Limited between September 2006 and October 2006, an Internet payment service provider that was later sold to PayPoint plc for £8.4m in October 2006.[16]

In 2007, Drummond founded FairFX Group plc (which later became Equals Group plc), going on to list the company on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in August 2014.[17] FairFX is a peer-to-peer foreign currency exchange with turnover of £1.1 billion (2017).[18] In 2017 FairFX raised £25m and acquired Q Money and its e-money licence.[19] Drummond was a director from August 2007 until November 2014.[20][21]

2011-2020

Drummond stepped down from Media Corporation in February 2012. It announced a cessation of business in August 2013.[22][23]

Drummond founded Gametech Limited in November 2013. Gametech was licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission and sold mobile gambling products under the brand names 'NENX' and 'ProOptions'.[24] The company went into administration in April 2017, with the appointed administrators Begbies Traynor citing the decision came about as a result of operational difficulties. [25] [26]

In August 2019, a private prosecution was brought against Drummond and his younger brother by a former shareholder of Media Corp.[27][28] The case was later withdrawn by the prosecution and at a subsequent cost hearing, District Judge Dean found that the claimant had acted improperly by submitting forged evidence. [29]

References
  1. "Jason Drummond". Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  2. O'Sullivan, Edited by Tom (12 March 2000). "The young rich entrepreneurs 1-10" – via www.theguardian.com.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  3. "Investegate |VirtualInternet.net Announcements | VirtualInternet.net: Proposed Placing at 900p per Share to Raise £27m". www.investegate.co.uk.
  4. url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/mar/12/rich.life17
  5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/4489416/The-net-losers.html
  6. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/2724064/Double-trouble-as-Drummonds-quit-jobs.html
  7. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/virtual-internet-accepts-12m-cash-offer-9260611.html
  8. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/feb/07/tax-gap-kpmg
  9. http://www.registry.pro/
  10. http://www.coms.com/
  11. "Active 24 ASA / New listings / Shares, equity certificates and rights to shares / Listing / Oslo Børs / Home - Oslo Børs". www.oslobors.no.
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. www.bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/BTX:LN. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. "Investegate |Nettworx PLC Announcements | Nettworx PLC: First Day of Dealings". www.investegate.co.uk.
  15. https://www.marketingweek.com/media-corporation-agrees-3-62m-casino-co-uk-sale-with-gaming-portals/
  16. https://opencorporates.com/companies/gb/03950372
  17. https://www.equalsplc.com/docs/librariesprovider53/archive/admission_document.pdf
  18. https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/fairfx/news/rns/story/w649mkx
  19. https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/fairfx/news/rns/story/w3dmyzx
  20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. "Business Information for Corporate Risk, B2B Marketing & Sales - Endole". www.endole.co.uk.
  22. "Media Corp executive chairman Jason Drummond to stand down". The Drum.
  23. "Hier vind je het » Alles over online casino bonussen". Alles over online casino bonussen.
  24. "GameTech". StartUs.
  25. "GAMETECH UK LIMITED". www.thegazette.co.uk.
  26. https://opencorporates.com/statements/542367262
  27. Williams, Christopher (17 August 2019). "Media Corp brothers face private prosecution over allegations of fraud" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  28. Cook, James (28 September 2019). "Inside the mysterious world of Mansion Group: gambling's biggest secret" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  29. Millard, Rachel (8 February 2020). "Media Corp brothers fend off shareholder prosecution after 'forged evidence' submitted" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
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