Bet365 CEO and founder Denise Coates is UK's best paid executive

In the past three years, Denise Coates has collected a total of £817 million (over USD 1 billion).

2019-12-19

United Kingdom

Reading time 1:43 min

The co-founder of the online gambling firm was paid a base salary of £277 million plus dividends in the year to March 2018, as she owns more than 50% of the company's shares. She and the rest of her family control 93% of Bet365. Coates is ranked as the UK’s 19th-richest person with an estimated fortune of £6.9 billion.

Bet365 boss Denise Coates received a £323 million payday (over USD 422 M) last year, confirming her position as the UK's best paid executive, breaking the previous record of £265 million set by Coates a year earlier.

The co-founder of the online gambling firm was paid a base salary of £276,585,000 in the year to March 2018, accounts filed at Companies House revealed on Wednesday. On top of this, she collected dividend payments of about £45 million from her shareholding of more than 50% in the Stoke-on-Trent-based company, The Guardian reports. Her pay equates to £1.3 million for every working day last year. It is 9,500 times the average UK salary and more than 2,000 times the amount paid to the prime minister, Boris Johnson.

In the past three years, Coates has collected a total of £817m. Over the same period, the average amount earned by the people of Stoke was £66,500. Her pay works out at 18,500 times that of the average woman in the city.

Coates is ranked as the UK’s 19th-richest person with an estimated fortune of £6.9 billion. The privately held company is owned jointly by Coates and members of her direct family, including her brother John, who is joint chief executive, and her father Peter, the firm's chairman. They all control 93% of Bet365.

Ms Coates earned a first-class degree in econometrics - the application of statistical methods to economic data - from Sheffield University before joining the High Street betting firm, run by her father. She identified the potential of online gambling in 2000 and invested in the domain name Bet365.com on eBay for USD 25,000, so that she could drive the family business in that direction.

Bet365 made a profit before tax of £791m in the year, compared with £661m the year before. The firm paid dividends of £92.5m, half of which are thought to have gone to Coates, as the owner of about half of Bet365's shares, the BBC reports. The group of firms owns Stoke City Football Club, which made a loss of £8.7m in the year.