Bet365 boss, one of UK’s richest, gets a $422 mn paycheque

By Ben Stupples

Denise Coates has hit the jackpot again.

The 52-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Bet365 Group Ltd. pocketed 323 million pounds ($422 million) in salary and dividends, according to a filing from the British online bookmaker.


Her salary of 276.6 million pounds from the closely held firm makes her one of the world’s best-paid bosses. It also strengthens her status as the U.K.’s richest woman, adding to a fortune already among the world’s 500 largest, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Founded two decades ago, Bet365 has cashed in on the online sports betting boom. The company posted record revenue of more than 3 billion pounds and increased operating profit by 15% to 758.3 million pounds for the year ended March 31.

Bet365’s net income has soared even as British bookmakers face scrutiny over underage wagering. More than a third of children age 11 to 16 in the U.K. have spent their own money on gambling, the country’s gambling regulator said in October.

Her net worth is set to increase to more than $5 billion through her majority stake in Bet365, according to the Bloomberg index. Along with Bet365, Coates and her family also own Stoke City Football Club.

She is the only woman among the 16 U.K.-based billionaires in the ranking, which includes Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Joe Lewis, owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.