The Block 2024 is officially done and dusted us and while we may have been thrown off by a ‘mystery buyer’ during the auctions – we now know Adrian Portelli bought all five houses.
The man known colloquially as “Lambo Guy” earned himself the moniker after turning up at auction day in 2022 in a yellow Lamborghini no less.
In 2023, he splashed out a whopping $12.4 million securing himself three out of the five Block houses on Charming Street,
He later said the price was worth it for “exposure and marketing”.
Now, as he faces nine charges over unlawful lottery allegations, here’s everything you need to know about the Aussie billionaire.
How did Adrian Portelli start?
Adrian is a Melbourne entrepreneur who launched the rewards company LMCT+ in 2018.
The company offers members prestige prizes, such as luxury homes, cars and cash via monthly prize draws using a legal loophole and has customers who pay a monthly subscription.
But while his business has been a staggering success, it’s come at a cost too – Adrian revealed in a March 2024 social media post that he’d spent “eight years and $100 million” on building a brand that was able to “build trust in the public”. He added that the business had “a database in the millions”.
“Our pixels, our social media, are so warm that we can just throw money at it and it will convert,” Adrian revealed. “We have access to features with these social media platforms and teams that you would not even know exist.
“So for anyone that thinks they are just going to wake up one day and ‘hey, I have a good idea, I am going to start a new giveaway company’, guys it did not happen overnight.”
Adrian also comes from humble beginnings as the son of Maltese immigrants.
He dropped out of uni to work with his father at his truck repair business, where he came to the conclusion that he didn’t love manual labour and later moved to Los Angeles to launch a chauffeur service for celebrities.
“I’m always humble because where I got to wasn’t easy,” he told the Australian Financial Review in October 2023. “I live a very basic life. I’m just into cars.”
How did Adrian Portelli become wealthy?
Subscribers pay $20, $50 or $100 per month to enter raffles to win prizes such as homes and luxury cars.
In 2022, Adrian snapped up House Three on The Block, which he later raffled off through LMCT.
Talking about the early days of LMCT in his Australian Financial Review interview, Adrian said he was “very, very private” in the first few years of the business.
“My social media was all on private, never really posted much,” he said. “Then I made an advert with my face on it, and people really opened up. They were drawn towards having a face behind the brand, and I just had to suck it up.
“I’m always humble because where I got to wasn’t easy … Every day, I’d just wake up with the thought of being successful. I was just consumed by it,” he added.
“I was just a bit of a loner, mate, and used to motivate myself and just keep pushing.”
In December 2024, Adrian was hit with charges over allegations he had been running an illegal lottery. He faces nine charges of personally conducting or assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery and his company, Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, which operates under the brand LMCT+, has been charged with ten similar counts.
Responding to the charges, Adrian wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post, “Let’s talk facts and disclose that my business generates millions and millions of dollars in sales for Australian businesses both big and small and pass those savings onto Aussie families to help alleviate the cost of living crisis.”
“I know the tall poppy phrase gets thrown around in Australia often and I hate mentioning it because I don’t want to believe it, but at what point in this country are we going to celebrate others’ success and use it to motivate our upcoming generation, rather than frowning upon it?”
His first mention is scheduled for January 15 in the South Australian Magistrates Court.
How much money is Adrian Portelli worth?
In November 2023, Adrian was placed seventh on the Finacial Review Young Rich List published in AFR Magazine, with the publication placing his net worth at $1 billion.
In 2024, Adrian was listed among 158 other billionaires in Australia on Richest240 in The Australian’s The List, with the publication placing his net worth at $1.30 billion.
Who is Adrian Portelli’s partner?
Adrian met his partner Karlie Butler at a bar. The pair welcomed their first child together, a son named Mercy, in January 2024.
Karlie, unlike Adrian, prefers to stay out of the spotlight and in a 2024 interview, Adrian praised her attitude to spending.
“She won’t spend a frigging cent,” he said, sharing more details on his friend Troy Candy’s podcast.
“She’s not on socials, she never posts, she’s one of those girls who’s very low key,”
Why did Adrian outbid himself on The Block in 2023?
Despite becoming a regular face at Block Auctions, Adrian left many fans scratching their heads over his bidding antics during Eliza and Liberty’s auction in 2023.
But Adrian, who describes himself as a “shy” guy has a simple answer: “Everyone was quiet so I just thought I’d rev everyone up a bit.”
But it wasn’t only Eliza and Liberty’s house Adrian snapped up, with the 34-year-old also placing the winning bid on House four and House one.
“If I bought the whole lot I would have copped criticism,” he told WHO after the auctions. “Last season I copped criticism for not buying any… I think three is a good number.”
Three was almost four though, with Adrian admitting he was tempted to throw in a bid during the auction for house number three. “I wanted to so bad,” he explained. “But I don’t want to go in there and buy more just to get criticised.”
“I could have bought them all if I wanted to but it was the sensible thing to do.”
Despite his bid-happy antics during The Block finale, many would be surprised to learn that Adrian isn’t a fan of auctions. “I’m not an auction person,” he told us, “I hate auctions.”
“I’ve gone to a lot of car auctions back in the day and I can’t control myself.”
