The Entrepreneurs Making A Difference In The Gaming Industry
Updated: May 17, 2023
Foolishly disregarded by previous generations as a waste of time and the domain of teenagers, gaming has gone on to become a multi-billion-dollar global industry. In 2018 the global gaming industry posted $134.9 billion in revenue; this year it is expected to grow to $221.4 billion.
Whilst Baby Boomers were busy writing off the gaming industry, there were plenty of tech savvy entrepreneurs, busy at work plotting their route to fortune.
In this article we shine a light on some of the most successful gaming industry entrepreneurs who have turned small investments into humongous financial portfolios. Read on to find out about some of the richest gaming moguls on the planet.
Melvyn Morris
Net Worth: $627 million
Fans of English football club Derby County will be all too familiar with the name Mel Morris after his disastrous tenure as chairman of the club. Before taking over the reins at Pride Park, Morris had amassed a huge personal fortune cashing in on the digital revolution.
In 1998 Morris founded the online dating website Udate, which he would later go on to sell for £100 million. With those funds burning a hole in his back pocket, Morris set up a gaming company called King which you might have heard of…
King was the company that created one of the world’s most famous and addictive games, Candy Crush. In 2014, Morris sold King to Activision Blizzard, scooping £450 million in the process.
Denise Coates
Net Worth: $5.5 billion
Sticking with entrepreneurs that have a penchant for owning English Championship clubs we have Denise Coates, a woman who by comparison makes Mel Morris look working class. Coates began working in the family’s small bookmaking shop after university, but soon put her entrepreneurial credentials to the test.
Obtaining a business loan from Barclays, Coates used the cash to buy a neighbouring bookmaking chain and, with the profits from that venture, bought the domain name Bet365.com and began to move her company’s services online.
Now not only does Bet365 offer sports betting, they also specialise in online casino games – a major area of growth in the gambling market. Coates $5.5 billion wealth is even more staggering when you consider that Bet365 aren’t the biggest name in the online casino market.
The success of Bet365 has been impacted by the rise of online casino gaming, with more players now heading online to play. Games such as poker, blackjack and slots are now easily accessible online with big name providers like Bet365 offering promotions such as free spins and no deposit bonuses to attract players in the saturated market.
Mark Pincus
Net Worth: $990 million
Back to the world of video games, we have Marcus Zynga, the cofounder and former owner of Zynga, a company established in 2007 that might not sound too familiar. That is however, until we tell you that Zynga was the company behind the insanely famous and popular Facebook game Farmville.
At one point during the heyday of Farmville, Zynga shares were going for $14.50 each, unfortunately for investors that has since dropped to $3. Regardless of the company’s current success, that early period of popularity was enough to make Mark Pincus an incredibly rich man.
Markus Persson
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Do you know your creepers from you biomes? Au fait with an enderman? Able to talk about the Wither Skeleton and griefers? If you are, that means you’ve spent time playing one of the world’s most popular video games – Minecraft.
Created by Markus Persson’s company Mojang in the Java programming language, Minecraft was released in November 2011 and became an instant hit with gamers of all ages, all around the planet.
Since launch the game has sold 238 million copies and has an estimated active playing base of 130 million gamers. It’s no wonder then that Markus Persson has a personal wealth exceeding a billion dollars.
Gabe Newell
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Gamers of a certain age will remember the confusion and shock of getting a game home, putting the CD into your computer and then being asked to download Steam and use activation codes to play your brand new game.
What initially started out as a barrier and obstacle to easy gaming, Steam is now one of the world’s premier game distribution platforms. Still operating mostly on PC, Steam allows users to buy games through its platform and to store their saved data so they can access it on a range of devices.
Gabe Newell, the man behind the platform, now has his sights set on making Steam the leading digital software for consoles as well as PC’s. If he succeeds, that net worth of his could well double in the coming years!
