Denise Coates CBE, chief executive of the gambling firm Bet365 and one of Britain’s wealthiest women, took a 45% pay cut last year and still received a package worth over £150m in 2024.
The highest-paid director of Bet356 Group, believed to be Ms Coates, was paid £94.7m for the year ending March 2024 compared to £221m received the previous year.
She was also due more than half of the dividends paid by the UK-based group – around £63m of the £110m dividend in the year, which was up from £100m.
The Stoke-on-Trent business has seen a rapid rise, much of which Ms Coates has been credited with.
Bet365 is the largest employer in the Stoke area. The group reported a pre-tax profit of £596.3m for the year, compared with a loss of £72.6m the year before when it was expanding in regions like North America.
The expansion appears to be paying off, with the group’s revenue growing by 9% to £3.7bn. Reduced executive pay also helped profits.
Bet365.com is one of the world’s biggest online gambling websites.
Ms Coates founded the Bet365 website in a portable building in a Stoke-on-Trent car park more than 20 years ago.
She has previously been described as one of the UK’s “most successful women” and among the best-paid executives in the world.
Ms Coates achieved a first-class degree in econometrics and later trained as an accountant within the family firm.
She helped build the group into one of the biggest online gambling companies from her father’s bookmaking business.
Her brother John Coates, who is 55 years old, is a co-chief executive of Bet365 and joint-chairman of Stoke City football club.
She is often credited as the driving force behind the business and became managing director of her family’s chain of betting shops at the age of 22.
The Coates family has a combined net worth of around £7.5bn, which put them in 20th position in last year’s Sunday Times Rich List
