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Bet365 co-CEO Denise Coates Earns a $648m Payment Package in 2020
By Jeff Osienya Apr 08, 2021 IndustryUK’s wealthiest woman, Denise Coats, receives a record-shattering $648 million in salary and dividends from her Bet365 gambling empire. This is the fourth year in a row that she’s hit the jackpot from running Bet365 Group Ltd.Denise Coates, the celebrated founder and co-CEO of the UK gaming giant Bet365 is officially the highest-paid person in the United Kingdom’s corporate history. After smashing the glass ceiling to become the highest-paid woman and executive in the UK for the first time in 2017, the wonder woman of gambling has reigned supreme for the fourth year running.
On top of maintaining her winning streak for 2020, Coates made history in UK’s ultra-completive corporate world after receiving a staggering $648 million (£469 million) for the year ending 29th March 2021. Moreover, from the look of things, the queen of gambling could also be the highest-paid executive worldwide last year thanks to her flourishing Bet365 brand. Bloomberg’s pay index estimates that Coates earned over $50 million more than the $595 million that Elon Musk earned in share points in 2019 to become the highest-paid executive of that year.
How Did Denise Coates Rack up Such an Enormous Pay in 2020?
According to the annual accounts report released by Bet365 last week on Wednesday, Denise Coates who is co-CEO alongside her brother John Coates earned a salary of $580 million (£421 million). Given that she is the majority shareholder of Bet365 with a 50.1% ownership of the company, she collected another whopping $66 million (£48 million) in dividends from her company shares.
This brought the total to $648 million (£469 million), meaning that she earned over $1.6 million (£1.2 million) every single day from 29th March 2020 to the same date this year. Breaking down the numbers further, Coates collected an hourly pay of over $328K (£237K+) per hour, based on an average UK workweek of 38 hours. So, essentially, the Bet365 founder was making over $5,400 (£3,900) per minute last year. This salary has blown past previous records for the queen of gambling and is 50% more than the $383 million (£277 million) she earned in pay and dividends in 2019.
With the company CEO’s payment package higher than the combined salary for all FTSE 100 Index CEOs, the recently published Bet365 annual report further states that:
Quote"The group ensures that remuneration for all employees is appropriate and fair, and is reflective of the individual's input and contribution to the business as well as the overall performance of the group."
According to the Bloomberg wealth index, Denise Coates is the richest woman in the UK and is, in fact, the only woman among 17 other UK billionaires who include the likes of Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, and Joe Lewis, the owner of EPL’s Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Currently, the Forbes’ UK billionaire’s list, puts the 53-year-old mother of five as the 9th wealthiest person in the UK, with a net worth of $6.5 billion.
Bet365 Group Weathers the Pandemic Storm
Meanwhile, the Bet365 Group reported a 7.5% dip in revenue from its core sports betting and iGaming business to £2.76 billion for the 52 weeks ending on 29th March 2020. In the report, the gaming juggernaut indicated that were it not for the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic and the lengthy sports hiatus, the company would have won 2% more revenue from sports and gaming year-over-year.
Through the reported period, the betting handle slipped by 8% even though the volume of active users increased by 4%. Moreover, of all the revenue the company collected for the 2020 fiscal year, in-play betting brought in 75% of the sports betting revenue and while mobile sports betting income was hurt by 7%, it continued to be the most popular betting cannel for patrons.
It’s worth pointing out that Bet365 is one of the only gaming companies that did not slash salaries, furlough, or lay off staffers through the pandemic. It is even more laudable that the company achieved this with absolutely no government support. During the release of the yearly report, Denise Coates said that she was impressed by how the company managed to pull through the pandemic chaos and adapted to the dire circumstances. Part of her statement read:
Quote“We continued to operate the business successfully throughout the lockdowns with business continuity plans enacted resulting in staff being able to work from home whilst significant investment was also made to ensure the office environments were Covid secure.”
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