{"id":31505,"date":"2022-05-13T18:32:21","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T23:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?p=31505"},"modified":"2023-02-17T04:24:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T10:24:36","slug":"denise-coates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/denise-coates\/","title":{"rendered":"How Denise Coates Built The Bet365 Empire And Became Britain\u2019s Highest-Paid Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fondly\nreferred to as the \u201cquiet queen of online betting\u201d, Denise Coates is one of\nBritain\u2019s most successful (and understated) business leaders. Alongside her\nbrother John Coates, Denise is the co-CEO of one of the world\u2019s leading online\ngambling operators, bet365. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking home a salary of \u00a3421 million<\/a> (approx. $508 million) in 2020 \u2013 the highest-ever recorded paycheck in the country, averaging around \u00a31.2 ($1.5) million a day \u2013 Denise is Britain\u2019s highest-paid boss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nunlike other figureheads in the online gambling scene, Coates pays her societal\ndues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngambling entrepreneur has topped the Sunday Times Tax List three years running\nand donated millions of pounds to charities annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From humble\nbeginnings in a Stoke-on-Trent parking lot to a multi-billion-pound gambling\nempire and Stoke City Football Club ownership, bet365 has experienced\nexponential growth since it launched in 2001. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the\nbookmaker has over 6 million customers in more than 200 countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how exactly did Denise Coates turn her father\u2019s modest sports betting<\/a> portfolio into a billion-pound enterprise? It all boils down to her dedicated work ethic and forward-looking vision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Aside from\na few luxuries here and there, Denise Coates prefers to live under the radar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview<\/a> with the Guardian, Coates said: \u201cThe public side does not come naturally to me. I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m a shrinking violet – I\u2019m not. I\u2019ve been bossy all my life. It\u2019s just that I very much enjoy actually running the business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than\nthe fact that she was born on 26th September 1967, this admittance of an early\npersonality trait is pretty much all we know about the billionaire tycoon\u2019s\nchildhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With so\nlittle information available about her early life, it\u2019s safe to assume that her\nformative years were relatively uneventful (at least as far as Coates is\nwilling to admit). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead,\nlet\u2019s focus on her relationship with her father, Peter Coates, and the early\ndays of her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Father, Like Daughter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peter\nCoates was the son of a miner and grew up in poverty. At the age of 14, Peter\nhad to leave school and start an office job to support his family. As an adult,\nhe was determined to create a better life from a young age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following\nan obligatory stint in the British army, Coates began working for a chain\nrestaurant, where he climbed through the ranks. He eventually left to open his\nown catering firm, which focused on providing catering services to sporting\nevents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success\nof his catering business allowed Coates to invest in a chain of betting shops\nwhich he named Provincial Racing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through these shops, he began to cultivate his success, and by 1989 he was a principal shareholder of his hometown\u2019s football club, Stoke City. However, his bookmaker portfolio had nowhere near reached its full potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Peter
Peter Coates. [Image: Graham Chadwick\/Daily Mail]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around the same time, his eldest daughter Denise graduated from the University of Sheffield with a first-class degree in econometrics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denise took\non a job at Provincial Racing, which she later dubbed \u201ca small chain of pretty\nrubbish betting shops.\u201d Nevertheless, she soon became an effective catalyst for\nits growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under her\ndirection the no-frills betting chain became increasingly profitable and so, thanks\nto her diligent efforts and work ethic, Denise was made Managing Director in\n1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rise Of Bet365<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The giant that is bet365<\/a> today would not exist if it weren\u2019t for Denise\u2019s visionary investment 22 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coates\nrealized the potential of the internet and believed that it would revolutionize\nthe future of sports betting. She bought the domain bet365.com in January 2000\nfrom an online seller for \u00a320,000 (approx. $25,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nconvincing her brother (who had been practicing as an attorney) to join her\nbusiness venture, Denise met with London\u2019s capitalist elite to secure\ninvestors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unable to convince a single one of them, she then turned to the Royal Bank of Scotland, who granted her a loan of around \u00a314 ($17) million with the entire Provincial Racing chain as collateral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Coates, Denise Coates and Peter Coates. [Image: Business Live]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Denise wasted no time and launched bet365.com in 2001. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long\ntime, Coates worked around the clock from a Portakabin in the car park of one\nof the family\u2019s betting shops. Though online betting was slowly gaining\ntraction on the internet, Denise was the first to fully invest in its\npotential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doing\nso, she carved out the future for a billion-dollar empire with over 5,000\nemployees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coates\nacknowledges the enormous risks that surrounded her decision to invest in\nonline gambling, dubbing herself and her brother \u201cthe ultimate gamblers.\u201d Luckily\nfor Denise (and her father\u2019s betting chain), her gamble paid off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually,\nbet365 became so successful that Provincial Racing was no longer a necessary\nasset for the Coates family, and it was sold to Coral Betting in 2015 for \u00a340\n($50) million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success\nof bet365 also enabled Denise to fulfil her father\u2019s football passions once\nmore. Stoke City FC, of which Peter had been the majority shareholder from 1986\nto 1998, was purchased by bet365 in 2006 for \u00a31.7 ($2) million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the team has not seen much improvement since then, it holds a lot of sentimental value for the Coates family, who recently cleared \u00a3160 million<\/a> (approx. $197 million) of the club\u2019s debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stoke
Image: Stoke City FC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Britain\u2019s Top-Billed Boss<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite\ntaking a pay cut of \u00a3170 ($209) million in 2021, Denise Coates is the\nhighest-paid company executive in the UK, let alone the highest-paid of all\nBritish female executives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though she\nruns one of the most successful bookmakers in the world (in one of the most\nmale-dominated industries imaginable), Denise never felt that her gender\nimpeded her work or resulted in different treatment from other industry\nleaders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coates\nclaimed that while there were a few meetings where she \u201chad to put somebody\nright\u201d, she also said, \u201cI knew my business, so it wasn\u2019t a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the\nother hand, Denise acknowledges \u2013 without irritation \u2013 that people often assume\nher father runs the bet365 business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\nattributes these \u201cfalse assumptions\u201d to the fact that \u201cthe media decides, for\nwhatever reason, that maybe it makes a better story if they say he does.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Denise
Denise Coates with her father, Peter. [Image: Howard Walker\/Daily Mail]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not hard to see why her position as co-CEO and majority shareholder can be confusing to some. Because of her desire for complete privacy, Denise is not mentioned by name in the company accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, it\u2019s\nmerely the \u201chighest-paid director\u201d that took home the \u00a3250 million (approx.\n$308 million) pay package in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denise Coates\u2019 exact net worth has been a topic of debate over the past several years. At the time of writing, Forbes\u2019 real-time net worth data places the figure at \u00a33.8 billion (or around $4.8 billion<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the bet365 company reported revenue of \u00a32.81 billion (approx. $3.5 billion) in March 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Denise Coates\nFoundation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With such\nformidable revenue flooding into bet365, Denise formed the Denise Coates\nFoundation (formerly known as the bet365 Foundation) in August 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denise\u2019s philanthropy has benefited multiple charities throughout the years, both locally in the UK and worldwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Image: EuroWeekly<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some\nnotable contributions include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n