Denise Coates reveals large pay cut despite bet365's profits soaring
Imago
Joint CEO of betting company bet365 Denise Coates has almost halved her salary in the face of year-to-date £626m company-wide profits.
The 57-year-old gaming mogul is renowned for being Britain’s wealthiest woman – yet bet365’s latest accounts evidence that she laid a 45% pay cut against herself during FY2024. The wage reduction brings her total income from bet365 to the £150m mark, including salary and dividend payouts. Without earnings attained through her more than 50% stock ownership of bet365, Coates took home around £95m.
Want to play casino games or bet on sports? Check out the best UK online casinos and best UK bookmakers today!
It is a far cry from her reported £421m salary earnings in 2020, yet continues a downward trend that began in 2021 when Coates took a £100m hit on the previous year’s income. By 2023, she had cut even deeper into her personal pay packet – raking in £270m.
This drastic pay decrease aligns with an apparent company-wide strategy to tamper down executive-level payments in an effort to increase profitability following 2023’s £60m deficit.
The results have been positive – as bet365 saw revenue shoot up 9% to £3.7bn. In FY2023, that figure stood closer to £3.4bn. Overall sports and gaming profit for FY2024 sits at £626m.
Denise’s father and brother, Peter and John, along with another company director, took a cumulative hit of £180m. Where executives had been paid a total of £304m per year before, board payouts now stand in the ballpark of £124m.
Such manoeuvres come as bet365 expands its global facilities by honing in on the fledgling US betting industry. Moreover, the company’s fiscal report brings to light a £120m payment towards the Denise Coates Foundation — a charity set up by Coates that aims to assist worldwide organisations to improve the lives of those who need help — in 2024. That is a 20% increase on 2023’s monetary commitment to the charity.
Employee headcounts increased along with bet365’s monetary results, as Coates gave the go-ahead for a successful hiring spree ahead throughout the year. Over 1,500 new positions were filled during FY2024.
Notably, bet365 included Stoke City in its report for the year, having only detangled from the football club in July 2024. A £30m loss on the club’s part lugs down bet365’s revenue across each of its ventures to £596m, with its sports and gaming leg representing a significantly more profitable proposition.
Denise’s brother John took full ownership of Stoke City when bet365 opted to decouple from the Coates family’s local team. Although none of Denise, John or Peter often discuss their businesses publicly, bet365 released the following statement on the results for FY2024 saying:
“The group has continued to invest in its trading platform capability and markets, increasing our global in-play and pre-match market offerings still further. The visual sports product has been improved, with enhancements to soccer and the addition of more sports, including American football and baseball.”
The company continued to explain that its updated live basketball facility aided in bolstering its revenue for the year, by “further enhancing customers’ real time sports information and in-play options and experience.”