Bet365's Dennis Coates takes pay cut (a modest amount) to £150 million

Posted: January 7, 2025, 08:49 pm.

Last updated: January 7, 2025, 09:02 pm.

Britain's highest-paid woman, Bet365 CEO Denise Coates, almost halved her pay last year. But according to the company's latest accounts, the billionaire businesswoman still took home £150 million (US$188 million) in salary and dividends.

Pay has fallen despite rising profits at the online betting giant. Bet365's revenue increased to £3.7 billion (US$4.7 billion) from £3.4 billion (US$4.2 billion) year on year. It made a pre-tax profit of £596.3 million (US$748 million) in 2014, compared to a loss of £72.6 million (US$91 million) the previous year, largely due to the high costs of US expansion.

Despite the 2023 loss, Coates still stood a chance of paying himself £270 million (US$339 million), although this was significantly less than the £421 million (US$528 million) claimed in 2020.

record breaking wages

That year, she became the highest-paid person in British corporate history, earning approximately £237,348 ($328,276) per hour based on an average 38-hour working week.

It's possible she was also the highest-paid executive in the world in 2020, a year when Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, paid himself a modest $80K.

Elon Musk also had a claim that year, but his pay with Telsa was then based on a confusing performance-based reward plan consisting primarily of stock options, meaning he either made $700 million or nothing, It depends on how you look at it.

Others say Coates has never sought to move Bet365 offshore, as many of its competitors in the online gambling industry have done.

As such, the company is one of the largest corporate contributors to Britain's tax coffers and the largest employer in the English city of Stoke-on-Trent, which the Coates family calls home.

As a 51% shareholder in the company, Coates could have paid less tax by taking most of her salary in dividends, but she chose not to do so.

The group also donated £120 million (US$150 million) to the Dennis Coates Foundation, a charity committed to health and well-being, community development, medical research and development, education, training, arts, culture and disaster recovery.

humble beginnings

Coates founded Bet365 with his brother, John, in a portable building in Stoke almost 20 years ago, turning the chain of betting shops owned by their father Peter into one of the world's largest online gambling companies.

The Coates family came in 20th place. many times With a net worth of approximately £7.5 billion (US$9.4 billion), he is included in London's list of the wealthiest Britons.