£145m pay rise for chief executive

The chief executive of online gaming group Bet365 quadrupled her pay to an extraordinary £199.3m, making her one of the best paid company bosses in the world.

Denise Coates, who was responsible for taking the family bookmaker online, increased her earnings by £145m last year. Dividends added a further £18m.

Other directors earned £83m, while Stoke City’s 290 staff – including its Premier League football squad – were paid £85m. The group’s remaining 3,500 staff shared £218m.

Coates said the jump in pay for directors and other senior managers rewarded “individuals that have been key to the development of the overarching corporate strategy that has successfully driven the group forward, thus enabling it to consistently outperform its competitors”.

It was a successful year for the Stoke-based group, which increased pre-tax profits by 12% to £514.8m.

Turnover was up 38% in the year to March 26, reaching £2.28bn, as an extra £10bn was staked during the year.

Coates attributed part of the improved performance to Euro 2016 and the fall in the value of sterling.