Denise Coates, the Founder and Joint CEO of online gambling business Bet365, received US$1.6 million for a day’s work.
Denise Coates, who is CEO of Bet365 with brother John Coates, earned a total of US$647 million (£469 million) in the year ending 29 March. She earned a salary of US$580 million (£421 million) and in addition earned US$66 million (£48 million) in dividends. Her salary in the year to March was more than 40 per cent higher than the US$382 million (£277 million) received in 2019 and meant she earned more than US$1.6 million (£1.2 million) every day last year.
The salary marks a new record high for Denise Coates, who is the majority shareholder of Bet365, and is believed to be the largest wage in UK history, The Telegraph reported.
In fact, Coates earned more than what Tesla CEO Elon Musk received in 2019, according to the Bloomberg Pay Index. The index estimates that Musk earned US$595 million in share options, while Apple CEO Tim Cook took home US$134 million in stock and bonuses, with the third highest paid US CEO in 2019 being Tom Rutledge, of Charter Communications, who collected US$117 million with bonuses, stock and stock option awards.
Coates, the daughter of English Championship League Club Stoke City Chair Peter Coates, launched Bet365 in March 2001. It is one of the world’s leading online gambling businesses, with its headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, UK. Additional offices are in Manchester, UK, Gibraltar, Malta, Bulgaria and Australia. Bet365 employed over 4,000 people as of 2020.
Bet365 reported an eight per cent fall in revenue to US$3.7 billion (£2.8 billion) for the year ending 29 March 2020, which would be due to the cancellation of sporting events during the coronavirus pandemic, on top of the lack of a major football tournament during the period. UEFA’s Euro 2020, scheduled to take place throughout Europe and the UK in June and July, had to be postponed, along with the South American Football Confederation’s Copa America, which was also due to take place across June and July.
Bet365’s operating profit fell by 74 per cent to US$268 million (£194.7 million), down from US$1 billion (£758.3 million) in 2019, owing to the reduction in revenue but also as a result of a large pay rise for its four directors. The combined pay of the quartet increased from US$514 million (£373 million) to US$729 million (£529 million).
Bet365 is the UK’s largest taxpayer for the second year running, according to the last annual Sunday Times Tax List.
Denise Coates and her family, who are worth US$9.9 billion (£7.2 billion), had a tax liability of US$790 million (£573 million) last year.
Denise Coates has previously used the company’s annual report to highlight her charity work. In the year to the end of March 2019 she donated US$117 million (£85 million) from the business to the Denise Coates Foundation, which was an increase from US$103 million (£75 million) the previous financial year.
