Johann Graf (born 3 January 1946) is an Austrian

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman, the founder and owner of

Novomatic Novomatic is an international gambling company based in Austria, founded by Johann Graf in 1980. Novomatic operates about 2,000 casinos and other gaming facilities in about 50 countries, many of them under the Admiral Casino brand. It also offe ...

, an Austrian gambling company.

Early life

Graf was born in Austria on January 3, 1946. He grew up with his grandparents in Vienna-Döbling. He completed an apprenticeship as a

butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale ...

and was Austria's youngest master butcher at the age of 23. However, Graf did not want to continue his parents' business, a butcher's shop with a pub and a few guest rooms in

Perchtoldsdorf Perchtoldsdorf (; colloquially ''Petersdorf'') is a market town in the Mödling District, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is known chiefly for its winemaking. Geography It is located immediately at the Vienna city limits, south of the ...

Career

In 1974, Graf founded Brodnik & Graf GmbH with the electrical retailer Gerhard Brodnik and started importing Belgian

pinball machines Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

, which were installed in pubs and cafes. In 1980, he started manufacturing gaming machines and founded Novomatic Automatenhandels GmbH with a starting capital of 50,000 schillings. His first success came in 1982, when he founded a sales company in Switzerland and soon dominated 70% of the Swiss market. By 1990, Novomatic had branches in more than 50 countries. As a result, the company grew to become one of the largest integrated gaming groups in the world with around 30,000 employees in 2021. On January 28, 2021, it was announced that Graf had given away 20% of the shares in Novomatic's holding company, Novo Invest GmbH (which itself holds 90% of Novomatic), 10% to his son Thomas Graf, who is Chief Technology Officer of Novomatic AG, and 5% each to managing directors of Novo Invest, Birgit Wimmer and Ryszard Presch (CEO of Novomatic AG). Graf himself spoke of a generational change.

Wealth

Alongside

Dietrich Mateschitz Dietrich Markwart Eberhart Mateschitz (, ; 20 May 1944 – 22 October 2022) was an Austrian billionaire businessman. He was the co-founder and 49% owner of Red Bull GmbH. In April 2022, Mateschitz's net worth was estimated at US$27.4 billion. Ma ...

and

Karl Wlaschek Karl Wlaschek (4 August 1917 – 31 May 2015) was the founder of the Austrian supermarket chain Billa. According to the magazine ''Trend'', Wlaschek was one of the five richest Austrians. In 1996 he sold Billa for Euro 1.1 billion. Early life ...

, Graf is considered one of Austria's most successful self-made billionaires. In 2012, he was the richest man in Austria together with Dietrich Mateschitz, with a net worth of US$ 5.3 billion. In 2015, he was the second richest Austrian with a fortune of $6.6 billion and ranked 208th on the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The c ...

list. In the 2024 Forbes ranking he was the third richest Austrian, with an estimated net worth of $7.1 billion.

Personal life

Graf is divorced with three children and lives in Vienna. He collects vintage cars and owns some 120, most of which are

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

s. He is known to avoid the public eye.

Awards

* Appointment as Kommerzialrat * Senator of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

* 2003: Awarded the title of Professor by the President of the Republic of Austria * 2008:

Trend A fad, trend, or craze is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation, or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short time period. Fads are objects or behaviors th ...

"Man of the Year"

References

1946 births Austrian businesspeople Austrian billionaires Austrian collectors Car collectors Living people {{Austria-business-bio-stub