The person getting the 230M isn't just some random guy on the street that a bet was made with. It is employee #1 who still works there. Presumably he was/is key to the companies success and future. Personally, I would happy to give someone 10% of my companies worth and have it be 230M because that means I have built a 2.3B company.
Not really true. Someone can do an incredible job taking a business from 0 to $1B, but be ineffective or worse at taking it from $1B->$2B. and that's OK --- you can thank and pay them for their past contribution, not in expectation of similar future service.
But the person is still there, and if he didn't get the company to 1B there would be no 1B-2B. Perhaps he was lucky and anyone could have been employee #1, good for him. People win the lottery all the time.
