UK’S richest woman earns £270m at Bet365
BRITAIN’S richest woman’s pay rose by £7m to just over £220m last year, despite her family’s gambling empire Bet365 making a loss.
Denise Coates took home £270m in salary and dividends from Bet365 last year, new account filings show.
The billionaire received £220.7m in salary, up from £213m a year earlier. She also gained from a dividend of £50m, on par with the same payout last year.
Ms Coates regularly heads the list of Britain’s best paid chief executives and is one of the top in the world. She earns roughly £1m for every working day of the year before tax.
She has run Bet365 since it launched from a Portakabin in Stoke 20 years ago. As well as the chief executive, she is Bet365’s majority owner.
Unlike other business owners who earn most of their wealth through dividends or share payouts, Ms Coates is paid a salary. The arrangement makes her liable for significantly more tax, with Ms Coates and her family paying an estimated £460m to HMRC last year.
Her brother, John, is also involved in the business and is a major shareholder. Her father, Peter, founded the company. The Coates family are worth more than £8bn and Bet365 is the majority shareholder in Stoke City FC and Peter Coates is chairman. The group also owns Stoke City’s Bet365 Stadium.
Ms Coates’ salary has held around a similar mark for the past three years after she faced criticism in 2020 for earning £421m in pay and £48m in dividends. Bet365’s turnover for the year ending March 2023 grew to £3.4bn, up from £2.8bn a year earlier. Betting on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was behind the rise, the company said.
However, the group lost £72.6m after making a “significant” investment in the US. It fell to a loss after recording a £49.8m profit in 2022.
Bet365 said: “Entering new markets requires high initial investment, however the directors remain confident that these will deliver a significant contribution to the group in future periods.”