Denise Coates and other betting figures ranked well in Sunday Times Rich List

Denise Coates, co-founder and joint-chief executive of betting giant Bet365, has seen her wealth increase over the past 12 months. The increase means she, along with the rest of her family, saw their wealth increase to £9.45bn, pushing them up the list from 20th to 16th. 

The bookies find themselves one place behind construction machinery company, JCB, founder, Anthony Bamford, and one place ahead of oil investors Carrie and Francois Perrodo.

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It has recently been rumoured that the Coates family is considering selling the betting company, and a potential price tag of £9bn has been mooted. It was widely reported that the company had been in talks with Wall Street banks and other US advisers about a potential full or partial sale of the business. 

By British bookmaker standards, Bet365 is a new company, having formed in 2000. What started in a portakabin in a Stoke-on-Trent car park has gone on to become one of the biggest betting companies in the world. Bet365 now employs more than 4,000 people and has offices in Manchester, Gibraltar, Malta, Bulgaria, America, and Australia. 

It has expanded its offerings abroad, including acquiring licenses in 13 regulated US states, and has exited grey markets like China to enhance its image in the US and other regulated markets. 

With a combined fortune of £5.73bn, Evolution stakeholders Ian and Richard Livingstone appear at 34th in the list, having dropped 6 places from 2024. 

Next on the list of names from the betting and iGaming field is Mark Scheinberg. Scheinberg co-founded PokerStars in 2001 in Costa Rica. It has become the largest real-money poker site in the world. It has been part of Flutter Entertainment since 2020, when it bought PokerStars’ former owner, Stars Group. Today, the site averages around 15,000 people playing real-money cash poker games every day.

Fred and Peter Done, founders of BetFred, moved up from 76th to 57th in the list with a combined wealth of £2.92bn. BetFred launched in 1967 as Done Bookmakers. BetFred, which recently launched a new app that enables players to track progressive jackpots available at its portfolio sites, has a strong presence in the online and physical betting worlds. As well as the Betfred Games, Casino, and Vegas websites, it also has more than 1,300 betting shops and is active in 10 US states. 

Michael Tabor, owner of BetVictor, ranked 199th with £800m, while PartyGaming’s founder, Ruth Parasol, saw her £780m fortune take her to 203rd in the list. Other relevant names in the list include Tony Bloom (£721m), who started a betting consultancy using money he won playing professional poker, and Will Roseff (£579m), an angel investor with a stake in Bet365. 

The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 350 wealthiest people and families in the UK. The list is published every year, with the Hinduja family topping the list for the fourth time this year. Highlights from this year’s list include King Charles’ increase of £30m in wealth and the number of billionaires falling from 165 last year to 156 this year.