Debbie Bestwick
Company: Team17
Wealth estimate: £139 million
Debbie Bestwick first became interested in video games when she played the original 1982 version of Football manager on her brother’s ZX Spectrum.
At 16, she took up a job at a video game store, and took over the business when its owner retired. She sold the store to computer retailer Microbyte and when Microbyte set up an in-house game development arm, Bestwick led its commercial operations.
Team17 faced difficulties as the Commodore computers it developed games for fell out of favour. But setting out to create a game that would be ported across a number of machines it launched Worms, one of the most successful games of all time with millions of units shipped even before counting its sequels.
In 2010, Bestwick led a management buyout. Eight years later, the business launched an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, netting Bestwick around £50 million for half her shares.
In March 2023, Bestwick announced that she would step down from Team17 to spend more time with her family.
See the full rich list here.
View the rich list methodology here.
