A little over seven months ago, Gameplay.com consisted of "two 40-year-old blokes called Mark with mobile phones, no business cards and a serviced office" according to the chief executive.
A year ago the two blokes, one from Leicester, the other from Somerset and both professionals from the technology industry, had not even come up with the idea for the company. Yesterday, the closing price of Gameplay's shares valued the company at close to £625m.
The shares owned by chief executive Mark Bernstein - the one from Leicester - were worth £30m. Those owned by chairman Mark Strachan were valued at £42m.
Along the way they have also made a multi-millionaire of Dylan Wilk, a 25-year-old from Leeds, by buying the mail-order computer game company he set up in his mum's council flat.
He promptly lost his driving licence after speeding in his new Ferrari.
"It has been an extraordinary and thrilling few months," Mr Bernstein said yesterday after reporting Gameplay's maiden interim results for the 26 weeks to January 31. The company, which allows gamers to buy and play games online, now has 789,000 paying customers following a recent acquisition in Germany.
The optimism is despite losses of £5.9m before goodwill and tax on share options and a turnover of £5.83m. Gameplay, which floated for £50m in August, claims it is now the leading player in online gaming in Britain and has now set its sights on continental Europe, particularly Germany and France.
BT and BSkyB have backed Gameplay by taking 10% stakes each.
Telewest and Cable & Wireless are also partners. Institutional investors have bought £50m worth of new shares since the flotation to fund expansion.
Analysts believe the German media group, Kirch, and France's Vivendi are interested in backing the European roll-out.
Mr Bernstein admits Gameplay floated at a fortuitous time. "It's fair to say we caught the wave of investor enthusiasm that has propelled our share price.
"But we are not complacent. There is now a lot of expectation on us delivering. The challenge now is to attract, retain and monetarise more customers."
