Bet365 boss takes large pay cut but still makes £158m

Denise Coates, chief executive of the gambling firm Bet365, took a massive pay cut last year, but still received a package worth almost £158m.

Ms Coates, understood to be the highest-paid director of Bet365 throng and one of Britain’s wealthiest women, was paid a salary of £94.7m in the year ending March 2024, down from £221m the year before.

But she also received dividends of around £63m, according to business accounts.

Ms Coates has been credited with the rapid rise of the Stoke-on-Trent gambling firm, which offers sports betting, poker, casino games and bingo online to millions of customers worldwide.

She became fixated on the potential for online gambling 25 years ago, according to her brother John, who is co-chief executive of Bet365 and joint-chairman of Stoke City football club, while working for the household-run chain of local betting shops.

After persuading her household to mortgage the business to pool and develop recent software and setting up headquarters in a temporary building in a car park, she became a pioneer in the shift and growth of online gambling.

The business’s growth has seen it become one of the globe’s biggest online gambling websites and the largest private-sector employer in the Stoke area.

On Monday, the throng reported a pre-responsibility gain of £596.3m for the year, compared with a setback of £72.6m the year before when it was expanding in regions such as North America.

The expansion appears to be paying off, with the throng’s turnover growing by 9% to £3.7bn. Reduced executive pay also helped profits.

Ms Coates has previously been described as one of the UK’s “most successful women” and is among the best-paid executives in the globe.

She achieved a first-class degree in econometrics before training as an accountant within the household firm.

The Coates household has a combined total assets of around £7.5bn, which put them in 20th position in last year’s Sunday Times wealthy List.

However, information of her most recent pay settlement was met with some criticism. Luke Hildyard, executive director of the High Pay Centre, a ponder tank that tracks the pay of chief executives, argued Ms Coates’ pay was not fair.

“People deserve to be rewarded for recent concept and achievement but there’s a question of what’s sensible and proportionate,” he said.

“Nobody becomes a multi-billionaire in isolation from wider population. In this case, the riches depends on money coming out of gamblers’ pockets, the efforts of thousands of staff.”

In November, the government announced the amount of money people can place on a single online slots bet will be restricted for the first period as part of a wider overhaul to tackle gambling addiction.

A £5 per spin limit will apply to all adults aged 25 and over, with a £2 per spin limit for 18 to 24-year-olds.

The Department for population, Media and Sport is also set to introduce a statutory levy on gambling companies to assist pool addiction treatment.

It said the measures would allow people to “gamble safely” but the betting industry’s main lobby throng said the government was “at hazard of losing perspective”.