Few people have shaped an entire national gaming ecosystem — but Gigi Levy-Weiss has. Known as the “Godfather of Israeli Gaming,” Levy-Weiss helped kickstart the country’s modern game industry as a founder of Playtika, early investor in Moon Active, and now General Partner at NFX.
In this episode of Secret Stash, hosts Justin Kan and Archie Stonehill sit down with Gigi to talk about how he went from Air Force pilot to gaming mogul, the wild origin story of Playtika, and why he believes the next major disruption in games won’t come from content — it’ll come from distribution.
Tune into the latest episode below or wherever you get your podcasts — or keep reading for the highlights.
From Fighter Pilot to Founder
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 2:58 – “I was a gamer. I always loved gaming. But most of my career before Playtika had nothing to do with games. I started boring companies — enterprise software, building automation. Then I got a call from a headhunter about this company called 888 Holdings. They’d just gone public and wanted a CEO.”
He jumped from managing 5,000 employees at enterprise giant Amdocs into real-money gaming — even though he’d only been in a casino twice. That move put him at the center of one of Israel’s first internet success stories, and set the stage for what came next.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 5:00 – “Israel had two big online industries back then: gambling and adtech. I thought, why don’t we have a gaming industry? This was pre-mobile, pre-iPhone, but Facebook gaming was just starting. That’s how Playtika began.”
The Accidental Birth of Playtika
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 6:22 – “The original idea wasn’t what people think. We were going to copy successful Facebook games onto other social networks — VK in Russia, networks in Japan and Korea. Then one of the co-founders said, ‘I’ve got this weird idea — a slot machine where you pay to play, but you can’t win money.’ I thought, that sounds crazy. But we built it.”
The first version launched on VK and instantly outperformed every other title they had — doubling revenue overnight.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 7:58 – “When we ported it to Facebook, it made more money in a single day than all our other games combined. We didn’t know why — maybe a bug, maybe the virality — but it exploded.”
Three months later, Playtika sold to Caesars for roughly $180 million. Four years later, Caesars resold it for $4.4 billion.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 23:00 – “I always say, if your best deal turns out to be your worst deal, you’re probably doing okay.”
Redefining What Makes Games Engaging
The insight behind Playtika’s runaway success wasn’t luck — it was recognizing that money alone isn’t the only motivator.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 11:12 – “In real-money casinos, everything is about money. You lose money, we give you a bonus. But that kills innovation. What Ori, our product lead, realized is that people also crave progression — unlocking content, leaderboards, meta-games. He made it so good you could remove the money and still have the fun.”
That design thinking influenced generations of games — from Moon Active’s Coin Master to today’s hybrid casual titles.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 15:00 – “When your meta is so good, you don’t need a complicated core. That’s why slots became the perfect mechanic — simple enough that the meta shines.”
Lessons from a Billion-Dollar Exit
Levy-Weiss’s relationship with Caesars went back years — but the sale still came with hard lessons.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 21:00 – “I showed them the game and a few weeks later, they put down a term sheet. It was a one-year-old company. I thought it was a great outcome. Then they sold it for billions. It hurt, but if I hadn’t done Playtika, I wouldn’t have done Moon Active.”
When Games Meet AI, Movies, and Everything Else
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 26:00 – “I’m a big believer that we’re nearing the point where games are no longer standalone. The difference between a TV show, a movie, a game, a personal assistant — it’s all merging. With AI, the lines blur even faster.”
He predicts future acquisitions will come not from publishers, but from AI and media platforms seeking daily engagement.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 27:00 – “Netflix will be a major game company. So will OpenAI. They’ll buy games not for revenue, but for access to users.”
The Broken Economics of Distribution
Levy-Weiss believes today’s biggest threat to game innovation isn’t creativity — it’s distribution taxes.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 29:00 – “Right now, distribution platforms make more money than the games. That’s not sustainable. Meta, Apple, Google — they’re sucking as much value as possible out of the ecosystem until it breaks.”
He envisions a world where studios cooperate to share audiences directly, bypassing middlemen and lowering customer-acquisition costs.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 38:40 – “Across my companies, we’re all paying Meta to steal customers from each other. Many of those players already churned from one game and end up paying in another. Why not connect directly?”
Archie Stonehill compared it to a prisoner’s dilemma — everyone knows it’s broken but can’t risk being first to leave. Gigi’s answer: collaboration and data sharing between publishers to keep the money “inside the industry.”
Web3, Identity, and Player Ownership
Levy-Weiss was an early Web3 gaming skeptic — but saw promise in one area.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 43:30 – “Play-to-earn was a pyramid. I wanted no part of it. But the idea of a portable identity — bringing your character or assets across games — that’s consumer-friendly. It failed because developers didn’t see the benefit, not because players didn’t want it.”
He suggests smaller studios could lead with smart cross-game incentives, borrowing from airline loyalty programs:
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 47:00 – “If someone’s a Diamond Tier player in another RPG, give them Diamond status in yours. Airlines do status matching — games should too.”
What Games Can Learn from Casinos and Commerce
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 49:00 – “In gaming, we like to tell other industries to learn from us. But it’s time we learn from them — loyalty, status, customer care. Casinos understood that early. They’d literally send top players new computers just so they wouldn’t uninstall the app.”
Archie Stonehill – “ In many ways, that’s what we’re building with Stash. Direct-to-consumer isn’t just about payments. It’s about creating the loyalty, identity, and personalization layers gaming has been missing.”
Finding Network Effects in Games
As an investor, Levy-Weiss still hunts for the elusive “network effect” in gaming — a defensible moat beyond content.
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 52:00 – “Not every company can or should have one. Multiplayer and tournaments have it. Web3 tried. AI storytelling might be next. We’re still looking.”
The Secret Stash
Levy-Weiss closed with one of the podcast’s most memorable “secrets”:
Gigi Levy-Weiss, 59:00 – “When we sold Playtika, I told my wife, ‘We just closed the deal!’ She said, ‘That’s not what I asked — where are you? I have yoga at five.’ A month later at dinner, she asked, ‘What does Playtika actually do?’ I showed her a slot machine game and she said, ‘They paid $180 million for that? You’re nuts.’ So yeah, she keeps me grounded.”
Key Takeaways
- The Israeli gaming boom was built on entrepreneurial pivots — from gambling to social casino to mobile.
- True engagement comes from meta-game innovation, not just monetization.
- The next frontier in gaming lies in distribution reform — direct relationships, loyalty, and collaboration.
- AI and identity layers will blur entertainment categories — and reshape who owns the player relationship.
