Who Is Denise Coates? Britain’s Highest Paid CEO Raked In $421 Million Last Year

Denise Coates, the boss of online gaming company Bet365, took home £323 million ($421 million) in pay last year, cementing her position as Britain’s highest paid business executive.

Her compensation comprised £277 million ($362 million) plus dividends for the one-year period ended March 31. Coates earned £220 million ($287 million) in the prior year.

Bet365 earned a pre-tax profit of £791 million ($1.03 billion) in its latest fiscal year, up from £661 million ($862 million) in the prior year.

“The number of unique new games available to customers increased in the period,” Bet365 stated in the company accounts. “As a result, the group's gaming operations experienced improved player retention and, ultimately, an increase in the number of active customers over the period.”

Bet365 also said active customer numbers increased by 23% year-over-year.

Coates’ pay (excluding dividends) works out to about £1.3 million ($1.7 million) per each working day of the year, or more than 9,500 times the U.K.'s average salary, or 2,000 times what Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes.

Over the past three years, Coates has earned a total of £817 million ($1.06 billion).

Forbes has estimated Coates has a net worth at $12.2 billion.

Coates’ pay even exceeded the $567 million earned last year by Stephen Schwarzman of U.S. private equity group Blackstone.

Bet365, a privately held firm, was founded by Coates and her brother John (who serves as joint chief executive). Their father Peter is chairman.

Coates began the company in the early 2000s in the parking lot of one of her father’s betting parlors in Stoke, England.

“We mortgaged the betting shops and put it all into online,” she said. “We knew the industry required big start-up costs but we gambled everything on it.”

The company also owns the Stoke City Football Club, which plays in Bet365 Stadium.

Bet365 is believed to be the largest private sector employer in Stoke.

Coates enormous earnings have triggered fury. Coates was criticized for the timing of the release of her company’s accounts – after the general election in which social inequality and the excesses of billionaires were major themes.

“This looks like cynical timing, sneaked out straight after a general election campaign where excess wealth, taxes on the rich and the vast gap between those at the top and everybody else have been key issues,” said Luke Hildyard, executive director of the High Pay Center, a think tank that monitors pay and income.

Hildyard added: “It’s important that wealth and how it’s created and shared are properly debated. But the publication of these figures seems designed to avoid scrutiny, suggesting that even Bet365 recognizes that, while business success should be rewarded, such a colossal payout goes far beyond what is fair or proportionate.”

Brian Chappell, founder of the consumer rights group Justice For Punters, asked: “Is it ethical for anyone to earn £1.3 million a day? When you combine that with coming from an industry where if [gamblers] are any good [they] will get shut down or if [they] are a heavy loser there is a good chance [they] will get made a VIP.”

Meanwhile, concerns are growing about gambling addiction in Britain and the easy accessibility of online gaming forums, especially by youths.

Cardiff University in Wales recently released research indicating 40% of children between 11 to 16 years of age gambled in the past year. Researchers said the findings were of great concern “given that across the U.K., most forms of commercial gambling are only legal for those ages 18 and over.”

"The evidence shows that people who gamble earlier in life are more likely to become problem gamblers in adulthood,” said Graham Moore of the Center for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement.

Adam Bradford, director of the Safer Online Gambling Group, has asked Coates to donate 10% of her salary to help those with gambling addictions.

In response to such criticism, Bet365 has asserted it monitors customer gambling patterns and will "terminate the [customer] relationship if it feels the risk of harm is too high.”

The Guardian reported that Bet365 holds licenses to operate in 14 countries ranging from Australia to Sweden, as well as the U.K. – however, as a private company they are not required to provide a geographic breakdown of their income generation.

The report suggests that Bet365 might be receiving bets from unregulated “grey markets” like China where online gambling is illegal.