Britain’s ‘highest paid woman’ Bet365 boss Denise Coates takes home £260m in salary and dividends

Britain’s “highest paid woman”, Bet365 boss Denise Coates, took home more than £260m in salaries and dividends in the year to March 2022, according to the company’s balance sheet.

Accounts released yesterday show the betting company’s highest-paid director – thought to be Coates – was paid £213million for the year, but less than the £250million he was awarded last year.

As the company’s controlling shareholder, Coates, 55, is entitled to at least half of the £100m dividend for the year.

Coates has been included in this year’s Sunday Times rich list for allegedly earning more than anyone else in the UK – with her family’s fortune putting her in the top 20.

Her latest earnings mean she still ranks as Britain’s “highest paid woman” despite a drop of around £37million from last year.

Bet365 CEO Denise Coates received more than £260m in salaries and dividends in the year to March 2022, according to the company’s balance sheet

One of the UK’s richest women, Mrs Coates founded the online gambling company in Stoke-on-Trent in the early 2000s after realizing the potential of internet betting to revolutionize the industry. Pictured Ms Coates was awarded a CBE in 2012

Last year, Coates’ corporate accounts revealed that they were taking a $170 million pay cut.

The betting boss’ salary fell from £421m to £250m in the financial year ended 28 March 2021 as the pandemic stalled the gaming giant’s growth, but she also received a more than 50 per cent share of the company’s dividend 97.5 million pounds.

It is believed to have raked in over £1bn in wages and dividends from Bet365 over the past three years.

Over the last financial year, accounts show that Bet365’s profits have fallen.

The company posted a pre-tax profit of £49.8m for the year (after a £26.2m loss from ownership of Stoke City Football Club), well below the profit of £469m reported last year. £.

Coates, a former University of Sheffield student who graduated with a first class degree, grew the company from her father Peter’s bookmaking business in Stoke-on-Trent into one of the largest gambling companies.

After buying the domain name bet365 on eBay in 2001 for around £2,000, she started running a dot.com betting business from a portable booth in Stoke.

coats completed the move from the Portakabin office and borrowed £15m from the Royal Bank of Scotland secured on the estate of her family’s betting shops.

She is now the controlling shareholder of Bet365, a global company that has reported d-launches in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Netherlands, and Colorado and Ontario in North America.

Along with her father Peter and brother John, the family are among the richest people in Britain, with a combined fortune of £8.6 billion as of May 2022, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

The betting company’s headquarters employs thousands in Stoke, with the company’s workforce growing to nearly 6,100 from 5,400 last year.

Ms Coates and her husband Richard Smith remain strictly private and refuse to speak about their personal lives or their backgrounds.

The couple established a charitable foundation in 2012 that funds a variety of charitable causes both domestically and internationally.

She provides scholarships for underprivileged students, supports a hospice for cancer patients and has helped victims of natural disasters.

They have one child of their own and adopted four girls from the same family.

Denise (left) along with her father Peter (right) and brother John (left) are among the richest people in the UK, with a combined wealth of £8.6bn as of May 2022, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

Pictured: April 2021, the facility was in full swing and you could see it being built

Farmer Edward Colcough said he would never sell his farm, which has always been in his family

Edward Colclough dismissed Denise Coates’ efforts to snap up his Cheshire property as it goes back to her proposed massive estate

An artist’s rendering of what Mrs Coates’ palatial home will look like once completed

Last year, a farmer revealed how he turned down a “dumb money” deal to buy his land from Coates for their space-age mansion.

Edward Colclough dismissed the betting queen’s efforts to snap up his Cheshire property as it goes back to her proposed massive estate.

But although he said he would not be selling, he wished her well as his neighbor and said he looks forward to moving forward with her.

Private Denise had been buying up the neighbors’ homes and lots to expand on their space-age home, dubbed the ‘Tesco Extra’ by locals.

Mr Colcough refused to be told if a formal offer had been made to him.

He told MailOnline last year: “This farm has been in my family for years. We are not for sale.”

Bet365 has been contacted for comment.