Billionaire gambling boss Denise Coates has netted more than £2billion since setting-up Bet365 from a Stoke-on-Trent portable cabin despite taking a 45% pay cut
The boss of gambling giant Bet365 has taken a 45% pay cut – but still raked in £150million last year.
Accounts show billionaire Denise Coates, already Britain’s highest-paid woman, further boosted her fortune through a salary and dividend bonanza. It came as Stoke-on-Trent based Bet365’s turnover rose by 9% to hit almost £3.7billion in the year to March last year.
Ms Coates, whose family fortune is estimated at £7.4billion, set up Bet365 from a portable cabin in a car park in Stoke in 2000. She is now listed among the UK’s biggest taxpayers, with her family estimated to have paid £375.9million into the Exchequer in 2023. The 57-year-old, who shuns publicity, is know for her record-breaking pay packets over the years. During her time in charge, she has netted well in excess of £2billion.
Documents posted at Companies House showed she was paid another near £97million in salary, plus was entitled to at least of the £110million dividend handed out by the company. Yet despite the mind-boggling, it was actually less than the £270million she got the prior year, or the £466million she collected in 2020.
Ms Coates and her husband Richard Smith lived for years in a farmhouse near Stoke-on-Trent. But the couple hired Lord Norman Foster’s architectural practice to design a futuristic steel and glass mansion in rural Cheshire. Set in 52 acres, the £90million estate is said to include a sunken tennis court, stables, ornamental gardens, workers’ cottages and a boathouse. Work started in 2019 and carried on for four years. She is said to have spent £8.5million buying surrounding land to ensure the property was not overlooked.
Ms Coates once said in a rare interview: “I was convinced early on that gambling would work well on the internet. It is private, accessible and allows you to present a huge range of betting opportunities to customers.”
Yet the growth of internet betting has triggered concerns about the destructive impact on problem gamblers. In its accounts, Ms Coates insisted the group was “committed to delivering a safe environment for its customers and continue to invest significantly in this area.”
Separate accounts show Bet365 gave £120million last year to the Denise Coates Foundation. The charity’s latest accounts show it had £942million at the end of March and undertook £11.4million of activities during the year.
The Coates family also owns Stoke City Football Club, where documents show annual losses topped £30million.
