Whoever said gambling doesn’t pay was clearly wrong in the case of bet365 boss Denise Coates, who took home an eye-popping salary of $582million last year.
The British entrepreneur, who is chief executive of the global sportsbook behemoth, may well have also broken the UK record for the largest salary ever paid out. This according to the BBC.
On top of that Coates was also paid dividends totalling another $66million, taking her annual money earned to an incredible $648million.
Online betting giant
Coates started bet365 with her brother John in the English town of Stoke around 20 years ago. They went all in for online betting early – and to say it paid off would be something of an understatement.
Despite the pandemic, bet365 still racked up revenues of $3.87billion in the year up to March 29, 2021, down some 8% on the previous year. Profits though were down some 74% at $269million.
Denise Coates has been one of the most highly-paid women in the UK for a number of years now, and reportedly gives massive amounts of her cash away to help worthy charities.
It should also be noted that her salary means she is also one of the bighest tax payers in the UK. Something critics of her rewards often conveniently forget.
Bet365 has also pointed out that it did not lay any staff off despite the impact of the pandemic on its results. Nor did it use the UK Government’s furlough scheme – which allowed businesses to put employees on paid leave and claim back a large portion of their salaries.
American dream
As well as being one of the biggest players globally, bet365 is also building a nice business in the U.S. – it is currently active in New Jersey, Colorado and New York. With more states likely to follow.
Like other sportsbooks, Coates and bet365 will be anxiously awaiting news from New York, where online betting could get the green light for legalization in the next 48 hours.
Talks have gone into overtime as the state – which so far only has a handful of retail sportsbooks – looks to balance its budget books by bringing in extra revenues.