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Bet365 boss Denise Coates saw her annual pay from her family's gambling empire nearly halve to £150mn last year, a payday that cemented her position as one of the UK's richest bosses.
Coates – who is the company's highest earner – took home a salary of £95mn for the year ending March 2024, according to accounts filed at Companies House, down from £221mn last year.
In addition, he was entitled to more than half of the dividends paid by the UK group, equivalent to £55mn of the £110mn annual dividend. This was an increase from the £100mn paid the previous year.
In total, this means Coates was paid around £150mn, down from the £270mn he took in 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 Companies House files, for his role in overseeing the rapid rise and success of the family's gambling empire based in their hometown of Stoke-on. – Trent.
Coates, who graduated from the University of Sheffield in economics, convinced his father to put money in his chain of books for the first investment in an online gaming group, which started from temporary offices in Stoke in 2001. focusing only on the growing market of online betting.
Coates he chose to keep the business in Stoke and family-run, with more than half of the group still owned by him and a significant portion by his brother John, who is joint chief executive. Analysts and former employees say the two – who rarely speak to the press – still handle most operations, development, legal and financial matters.
The group is the largest employer in the Stoke area and one of the largest private companies for corporate tax payers, although many of its competitors have based their operations offshore.
Bet365 accounts show that £120mn was donated in the last financial year to the Denise Coates Foundation, a registered charity, up from £100mn the previous year.
The group reported a pre-tax profit of £596.3mn for the year, compared to a loss of £72.6mn a year earlier when it expanded in regions such as North America. Revenues are up 9 per cent to £3.7bn in the year to March 2024.
During the year, the company said it was pursuing licenses in new markets “with active management”, licenses granted in several US states and “other resources have been dedicated to expanding our presence in North and South America”.
The club was the majority owner of Stoke City Football Club, which made a pre-tax loss of £30.3mn – on top of a loss of £12.4mn in 2023. However, the accounts show that this was dissolved in July 2024, and the controlling stake is now owned by John Coates, Denise Coates' brother.