Founder of betting company made £1million every day last year

The best-paid boss in Britain picked up £270million last year – despite her gambling outfit reporting a £70million loss.

Denise Coates, founder of betting company Bet365, was paid £220.6million in the 12 months to March 26 – an increase of £7million in a year. As the firm’s controlling shareholder, she was also entitled to at least half the £100million dividend paid during the year, according to the Stoke firm’s accounts.

Joint chief executive officer Ms Coates, 56, receives around £1million every day, before tax, and yesterday a think-tank said her huge pay package was neither fair nor appropriate.

Luke Hildyard, executive director of the High Pay Centre, added: “People deserve to be rewarded for innovation and success but there’s a question of what’s sensible and proportionate. Nobody becomes a multi-billionaire in isolation from wider society.”

“In this case, the wealth depends on money coming out of gamblers’ pockets, the efforts of thousands of staff, plus wider factors like people having some disposable income, a secure and reliable internet network or all the infrastructure that goes into staging sports events.”

Ms Coates’ £270.6million combined salary and dividend payout is significantly more than the £260million she collected in 2022 and is one of the biggest pay awards in the world, yet it remains dwarfed by the record-breaking £471million she was paid in 2020.

After setting up Bet365 in a portable building in Stoke in 2000, Ms Coates built it into one of the biggest online gambling companies, based on her father Peter’s bookmaking firm.

It has propelled her, Peter and her brother John – who are also joint chairmen of Stoke City FC – into the ranks of the UK’s richest. The family are 16th in the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune estimated at £8.8billion.

Since 2016 the mother-of-five has picked up more than £1.7billion. The group had just more than 6,000 staff in 2022 and now employs 7,200. It also made a £105.4million donation to registered charity The Denise Coates Foundation.

Bet365’s revenue from its core sports and gaming business grew by 19% to £3.39billion for the year, boosted by the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as well as by growth into newly regulated markets.

The sports and gaming division was, however, loss-making for the year following a jump in costs and increased investments.

Stoke City FC, also covered within the accounts, recorded a turnover of £21.4million for the year with a £12.4million loss.

As a result, the whole group fell to a £72.6million loss from a £49.8million profit a year earlier.