Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Bet365 boss Denise Coates had her annual payout from the family’s gambling empire almost halved to £150mn last year, a payday that still cements her position as one of the wealthiest executives in the UK.
Coates — who is the highest earner at the company — took a salary of £95mn in the year ending March 2024, according to accounts filed at Companies House, down from £221mn in the previous year.
In addition, she was due more than half of the dividends paid by the UK-based group, equating to more than £55mn of the £110mn dividend in the year. This was an increase from the £100mn paid out the year before.
In total, this means that Coates was paid about £150mn, down from the £270mn she took last year in salary and dividends.
The latest accounts mean that Coates has been paid more than £2.5bn over the past 15 years, according to Company House filings, for her role overseeing the rapid rise and success of a family gambling empire still based in their home town of Stoke-on-Trent.
Coates, a University of Sheffield economics graduate, convinced her father to mortgage his chain of bookies for the initial investment for the online gaming group, which started in temporary offices in Stoke in 2001. The high street chain was sold in 2005 to allow the business to focus purely on the booming market in online betting.
Coates chose to keep the business in Stoke and run by the family, with more than half of the group still owned by her and another significant stake owned by her brother John, who is joint chief executive. Analysts and former staff say the pair — who rarely speak to the press — still oversee most of the operations, development, legal and financial affairs.
The group is the largest employer in the Stoke area and one of biggest private company payers of corporate tax, even though many rivals have based their operations offshore.
Bet365’s accounts show that £120mn was donated in the last financial year to the Denise Coates Foundation, a registered charity, an increase from £100mn the year before.
The group reported a pre-tax profit of £596.3mn for the year, compared with a loss of £72.6mn the year before when it was expanding in regions such as North America. Revenues rose 9 per cent to £3.7bn in the year to March 2024.
During the year, the company said that it pursued licences in new markets with “commercially viable regulation”, with licences awarded in multiple US states and “further resources were devoted to further expanding our footprint in both North and South America”.
The group was the majority owner of Stoke City Football Club, which made a pre-tax loss of £30.3mn — higher than the loss of £12.4mn in 2023. However, the accounts show that this was demerged in July 2024, with the controlling stake now owned by John Coates, the brother of Denise Coates.