£322,000 PER DAY

DENISE COATES, 49 ESTIMATED WEALTH: £1.7 BILLION

HOW SHE MADE IT: A mother of five with a gamine cropped hairstyle, Denise Coates is the richest woman you’ve never heard of. Plenty of people would fail to recognise her even in her home town of Stoke-on-Trent.

The daughter of Stoke City Football Club chairman Peter Coates, she set up online gambling site Bet365 from a Portakabin 15 years ago — and is now Britain’s richest self-made businesswoman. She owns just over 50 per cent of the company and received a £63.5 million dividend last year on top of her £54million pay package. Her earnings therefore totted up to £117.5 million, or £322,000 a day.

HOW SHE SPENDS IT: Denise is described by associates as a workaholic who toils day and night. She and husband Richard Smith don’t even attend big matches at her father’s football stadium. In fact, Denise’s sole concession to her huge wealth is that she drives an Aston Martin. She has also given £100million to charity since 2012. She lives in a £1.3million farmhouse near Stoke-on-Trent, but could afford to buy a similar one on a weekly basis.

The couple adopted four young girls a few years ago, and have one child of their own. ‘It has been hugely rewarding for both of us and has given us a great deal of pleasure,’ she said in a rare interview in 2013.