Bet365: UK's best-paid boss strikes ₤ 323m prize

Bet365 manager Denise Coates has gotten a ₤ 323m payday, validating her position as the UK's best paid executive.

The co-founder of the online gaming company was paid a ₤ 277m salary plus dividends as the appeal of online betting continues to grow.

The company's accounts, external show that in the year to end-March her salary rose from ₤ 220m on the previous period.

But the rise comes as the market faced mounting criticism, including over kids betting.

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The privately held company is owned collectively by Ms Coates and members of her direct household, including her bro John, who is joint president, and her dad Peter, the company's chairman.

Ms Coates earned a first-class degree in econometrics - the application of analytical approaches to financial data - from Sheffield University before signing up with the High Street betting firm, run by her father.

She identified the potential of online gambling in 2000 and invested in the domain name Bet365.com so that she might drive the household company because direction.

Bet365 made an earnings before tax of ₤ 791m in the year, compared to ₤ 661m the year before.

The firm paid dividends of ₤ 92.5 m, half of which are believed to have gone to Ms Coates, as the owner of about half of Bet365's shares.

The group of firms owns Stoke City Football Club, which made a loss of ₤ 8.7 m in the year.

The High Pay Centre, a think tank which keeps an eye on earnings, said the timing of the release of the Bet365 results looked "cynical", offered it was simply after a general election.

High Pay Centre executive director Luke Hildyard stated: "this promotion code looks like cynical timing, slipped out directly after a basic election campaign where excess wealth, taxes on the rich and the vast space in between those on top and everyone else have been essential issues."

He added: "Business success need to be incentivised and rewarded, but a payment a fraction of this size would still manage a way of life beyond the wildest dreams of many people."

Mr Hildyard said there was "plainly scope" for those accumulating such sums to pay their workers more or contribute more in taxes.

Child gambling

In October, Cardiff University research study suggested that two-fifths of 11 to 16-year-olds had gambled in the previous year.

The research study stated this promotion code was "especially concerning, provided that across the UK, many kinds of industrial betting are just legal for those aged 18 and over".

Slot machine were the most popular kind of gaming, followed by playing cards for money with good friends and scratchcards.

Dr Graham Moore of the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement said at the time: "The proof shows that individuals who bet previously in life are most likely to become issue gamblers in adulthood."

However, a Betting Commission research study in October, external recommended that 11% of children had actually bet within a week of the study being performed.

But in addition, the regulator cautioned in July, external of research that indicated links in between "problem gambling and self-destructive thoughts or efforts".

Bet365 states it has "an undeviating dedication to deliver industry-leading techniques to player defense", consisting of monitoring client betting, and states it will "end the [customer] relationship if it feels the threat of harm is too expensive".

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Child betting a 'growing issue' - research study

15 October 2019