Britain’s best paid woman pocketed more than £260million last year from her family’s gambling business, taking her earnings over the last eight years to more than £2.6billion.
Denise Coates, the boss of Bet365, received a salary of nearly £104million from the firm for the year to March 2025, according to recently filed accounts.
She is also entitled to at least half of the £313.6million in dividends paid out to shareholders during the year, taking her total haul for the period to at least £261million.
This was an increase of the £150million she was paid for the previous financial year – but is short of her record pay deal in 2021.
The company’s profits fell 43pc to £339million over the year as it focused on expanding its presence in South America and the US. Sales rose 9pc to £4billion compared to £3.7bn the year before.
Coates’ payouts were awarded before the Labour Government confirmed it would hit the online gambling industry with a slew of taxes from April next year.
Denise Coates received a salary of nearly £104m from the firm for the year to March 2025
Bet365 has not declared how much the tax increases will cost but rival Evoke, which owns William Hill, said it was facing a £135million bill.
It has also been speculated that the Coates family may be considering selling all of part of the business, which could be valued at £9billion.
Coates, 58, is famous for her record-breaking pay packets, which over the last decade have amounted to around £2.67 billion.
She received a record-breaking £469 million in 2021 when people turned to online gambling to alleviate boredom while stuck in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, sparking a boom in demand.
Coates set up Bet365 in 2000 from a car park and is credited with creating thousands of jobs in Stoke-on-Trent, where it employs more than 8,500 people.
It remains a family business with her brother John Coates serving as joint chief executive as well as a major shareholder.
The Coates family also control Stoke City Football Club, which has its home ground at the Bet365 stadium.
This was also well below the record-breaking £469million she received in 2020 when people turned to online gambling to ease boredom while stuck in lockdown, resulting in soaring demand.
But Coates has personally preferred to keep out of the spotlight and said in one of her rare interviews that she did not ‘enjoy the attention’.
The Coates family are some of Britain’s biggest taxpayers having paid an estimated £265million to the Exchequer last year alone.
But Coates’ vast wealth and handsome pay cheques have not always proved popular, with critics arguing her pay over-values the position of chief executives.
Despite a warm reception in its hometown, Bet365 has faced intense scrutiny over its practices as well as its ties to the government.
Last year, it emerged that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had received a £25,000 donation in 2020 from Coates’ father Peter, the chairman of Bet365, to support his campaign for leadership of the Labour Party.
And the company was also fined £582,000 by the Gambling Commission in April 2024 for failing to protect vulnerable customers as well as prevent potential money laundering.
Bet365 was approached for comment.
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