Bet365 boss pockets £221m salary despite losses

CEO and founder of Bet365 Denise Coates was paid nearly £221m last year, whilst the gambling business suffered a pre-tax loss of £72.5m.

The previous year, Bet365 reported profits of £49.8m but last financial year “incurred a significant increase in costs associated with entering into new markets”.

It made a series of investments in IT and technology, resulting in administrative expenses increasing year-on-year by £585.2m.

The Stoke-on-Trent based business saw turnover increase from £2.87bn to £3.41bn over the same period, thanks to a boost in betting during the Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

Coates, Britain’s richest woman, saw her salary increase by £7m in the last financial year, meaning her wages over the last four years exceeded £1bn in total. As its controlling shareholder she is also entitled to at least 50% of the £100m dividend that was also paid, meaning she secured £270m overall.

It is still less than Coates 2020 salary, where she was paid a wage of £421m for the year ending March 29. Added to this was a payment of £48m in dividends, taking her salary to £469m.

She set up Bet365 in a portable building, with a £15m loan from RBS in 2001.