Denise Coates CBE, chief executive of gaming company Bet365 and one of Britain’s richest women, took a 45% pay cut last year and still received a one-year pay cut worth over £150 million in 2024.
The highest-paid director at Bet356 Group, believed to be Ms Coates, was paid £94.7m for the year ending March 2024, compared to £221m received the previous year.
It was also due to receive more than half of the dividends paid by the UK-based group, around £63m of the year’s £110m dividend, up from £100m.
The Stoke-on-Trent business saw rapid growth, for which Ms Coates was largely credited.
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 previous year when it was expanding in regions including North America .
This expansion appears to be paying off, with group turnover increasing by 9% to £3.7 billion. Cuts in executive salaries also contributed to profits.
Bet365.com is one of the largest online gambling sites in the world.
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 highest-paid executives in the world.
Ms Coates gained a first class degree in econometrics and later trained as an accountant in the family business.
She helped build the group into one of the largest online gaming companies that grew out of her father’s bookmaking business.
His brother John Coates, aged 55, is co-chief executive of Bet365 and co-chairman of Stoke City football club.
She is often considered 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 £7.5 billion, placing them at number 20 on last year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
