06 January 2023 , 19:32
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The mega-wealthy boss of gambling giant Bet365 has raked in more than £1.6billion in the past five years - earning the equivalent of almost £600,000 a DAY in one 12-month period.
Latest accounts for the betting empire show Denise Coates netted another £263million in the year to last March.
The eye-watering sum amounted to one of Britain’s biggest ever payouts to a boss.
It adds to a fortune amassed by the 55-year-old, who is already among Britain’s richest women.
Publicity-shy Ms Coates has come a long way since founding the online gambling company from a portable cabin in a Stoke-on-Trent car park in 2000 after spotting the potential of internet betting.
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She was also entitled to at least half of £100m in dividends (PA)Newly published accounts for Bet365 Group show its highest paid director - believed to be Ms Coates - got a salary of £213.4million in 2022, around £585,000 a day.
She also picked up more than 50% of a £100m dividend that Bet365 handed out.
Her salary was down from nearly £250million in 2021 and a lot less than the staggering £421million she got in 2020.
Luke Hildyard, director of think tank the High Pay Centre, said: “It’s hopelessly inefficient for such a huge amount of income to accrue to one individual when so many people in Britain are going through such hardship.
“There really is no moral or economic justification for such extreme payouts and the inequality and division that they create.”
She set the betting firm up in a car park in Stoke back in 2000 (AFP via Getty Images)The windfall comes amid concerns about the impact of problem gambling.
Ms Coates, writing in the accounts, insisted: “The group is committed to delivering a safer environment for its customers and we continued to invest signifcantly in this area.”
She highlighted the firm’s use of an “early risk detection system.”
While raking in a fortune, Ms Coates was also Britain’s biggest taxpayer last year.
The Coates family paid an estimated £481.7million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
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Bet365 donated £100million to Ms Coates charitable foundation last year.
The mum-of-five studied at the University of Sheffield, where she gained a first class degree in econometrics.
She and her family - her brother John is joint-chief executive - remain close to their roots.
Ms Coates once said: “I am a local person and it is important to me that the area is as successful as it can be.
“It’s great to show that what is essentially a technology firm can be successful in this area.
“The area has its fair share of bad press, but it is home to a lot of talented, hardworking people.”
She loves fast cars and drives an Aston Martin.
In 2017, the family began buying country houses and farmland not far from Stoke to build a private estate.
The Coates family own Stoke City Football Club which, the accounts show, lost £26.2million in the year to March.
The club’s turnover was hit by the reduction of parachute payments from the Premier League following its relegation in 2018.