Jamie Craven, the father of Australia’s youngest billionaire Ed Craven, has swooped in and bought the Sapphire Beach house of Nathan Tinkler for $16 million – cash.

The sale price is almost half the $30 million that the former coal magnate-turned-discharged bankrupt Tinkler was seeking when he listed the almost two-hectare estate last June.

The purchase by Craven snr’s corporate interests of the property, known as Noorinya, is a return to the Coffs Harbour area for the family. His son, crypto-casino co-founder Ed Craven, 28, was raised in the Mid North Coast city just south of Sapphire Beach, and until 2018 the family still owned in the up-market beachside suburb.

However, in more recent years the Cravens have been one of Melbourne’s top trophy-home buyers. Craven jnr’s registered address is a $12.5 million penthouse in Southbank owned by the same company as the Sapphire Beach property, as well as a Toorak mansion he bought two years ago for $38.5 million to live in while he undertakes a rebuild of an $80 million mansion nearby he bought 18 months ago.

Helping to fund it all is Stake.com, the casino and sports betting site Craven jnr co-founded in 2017 and which has since grown to become one of the world’s biggest gambling enterprises.

Fuelled by cryptocurrency deposits, the casino and sports betting site he co-founded in 2017 has grown to become one of the biggest gambling enterprises in the world, propelling his personal wealth to $3.11 billion on last year’s Australian Financial Review Rich List 200.

Craven jnr also owns game creator Easygo. His dad Craven snr –who was banned from working in financial services for five years and jailed for six months over the late 1980s collapse of Spedley Securities – is listed as a director of Easygo.

Craven jnr’s mother is Verena Marie Macarthur-Onslow, the daughter of the late Major General and grazier Sir Denzil Macarthur-Onslow.