litquidity - servicing global legal finance
litquidity founder
John Kennedy FitzGerald
A former professional and Canadian National Team soccer player. Several years after suffering a career-ending injury while playing for his country, John attended the University of Toronto to study economics. After that, in 1999, he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B) from the University of Western Ontario. In early 2000, he practiced corporate securities law at a prominent Toronto law firm and later joined CryptoLogic as its General Counsel. CryptoLogic was a licensor of online gaming software whose product offerings included business-to-consumer operations and business-to-business support services, including payment processing.
After leaving CryptoLogic with a solid knowledge of the industry, he consulted in the online gambling industry and after that, in 2005, co-founded Ethoca, which has become the leading global provider of collaboration-based fraud prevention technology that assists banks, card companies, e-commerce merchants, and other online businesses with fraud prevention and sales acceptance. Guided chiefly by his co-founder, Andre Edelbrock, a CryptoLogic alumnus and dedicated leader, the company was sold to MasterCard in 2019 for over USD$500m.
In 2010, in keeping with his evolving online gambling roots, he co-founded World Gaming alongside his partners William Levy and Zach Zelden (which became Virgin Gaming in partnership with Sir Richard Branson), offering a social gaming community for competitive console gamers to meet, challenge and play against each other in head-to-head and tournament challenges. Virgin Gaming was sold to Cineplex in 2012.
In 2013, he founded The Intertain Group Limited, later known as Jackpotjoy plc, which became the world's largest online bingo-led gambling business. As CEO, he led its go-public transaction and successful listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, followed by rapid growth both organically and through strategic acquisitions. Intertain became one of the fastest-growing companies on the TSX, culminating with S&P/TSX Composite Index membership. Unfortunately, in 2016, Intertain faced a damaging short-interest report aimed at undermining him and the company due to visibility and exceptional growth. Despite the Board and its Independent Advisors refuting every claim, he chose to step down after identifying his successor in complete alignment with the Board to mitigate unwanted media attention. Notably, those associated with this report have faced SEC and DOJ Investigations and fines. Bally’s Corporation later acquired Jackpotjoy for over £2b.
In 2018, he led an entrepreneurial team into the emerging realm of cryptocurrency by managing one of the then-largest Antminer s9 mining facilities globally. The primary goal was establishing a base deposit currency for the first vertically integrated global online gambling company. However, grappling with challenges such as the escalating costs of renewable energy, fierce competition in the nearly cost-free mining landscape within unregulated environments, and the volatility of the mined product's value eventually led to the cessation of this mining initiative. As a result, the base
gambling component was never built. Stake, launching in late 2017, in line with his original
vision of being powered by the privacy and fluidity of cryptocurrencies, has become the most extensive cryptocurrency gambling offering in the World, having revenues of over USD$2.6b.
Those who know John well will immediately see that family stands at the center of his life - a constant source of strength, inspiration, and support. Alongside his accomplished wife, whom he met in his second year of law school, and their two exceptional children (an ambitious son carving his path at a respected US university and a daughter poised to follow shortly in his footsteps), he has had a great foundation to create value-add businesses derived from aspects of the companies which he has been involved. His family's dedication to him echoes in every aspect of his life; whether he is strategizing about the next “big thing” or caught up in the exhilaration of road cycling or cheering for the Toronto Raptors, his family's enduring support, wisdom, and patience, drive his ability to innovate and consistently pursue new ideas and ventures.
