Denise Coates remains the UK’s biggest contributor in her role as founder and co-chief executive of Bet365, despite having her pay reduced by £170m ($227m) over the last 12 months.
Financial accounts filed with Companies House reveal that the betting operator reported revenue of £2.8bn for the year ending March 2021, which was largely flat year on year.
This translated into a profit of £470 million, of which Coates owed a share of approximately £250 million as base salary. Also, due to owning over 50% of bet365, Coates pocketed just under £50 million in dividends.
While his remuneration alone was a total of £170m lower than the previous year’s estimate, this means that Coates has accrued around £300m when factoring in a combination of base pay and a portion of the dividends made available to directors.
In total, Denise Coates has individually earned approximately £1.3 billion pounds over the last five years.
In a statement, Bet365 stated: “At the beginning of the period we experienced the almost complete cessation of sporting events; however, towards the end of the first half we saw the restart of sports with the vast majority of European football leagues managing to complete their domestic seasons.” .
In fact, during the period in question, Bet365’s sports betting amount dropped by 13%. The company also factored in losses at Stoke City, the football club in which the Coates family owns 93% of the shares.
Despite this, operating profit at Bet365 grew by 47% to £286 million, which was said to be as a result of paying its directors less.
The company, launched in 2001, is owned by Coates, his brother John and father Peter. Together, the Coates family paid around £482 million in taxes for the year in question, a total of £180 million more than the UK’s next biggest taxpayer, Chris Rokos.
