The multibillionaire boss of gambling company Bet365 has collected annual pay and dividends of more than £260m – one of the world’s biggest-ever pay awards but less than the record-breaking £471m she collected in 2020.
Denise Coates, who set up Bet365 in a portable building in Stoke-on-Trent in 2000, was paid a salary of £213m in the year to March 2022, according to the company’s latest accounts published on Friday. As the company’s controlling shareholder she is also entitled to at least 50% of the £100m in dividend paid for the year.
While her £263m pay is huge – and works out at just over £1m for every working day of the year – it is 12% less than the £300m she collected in 2021, as the company paid out less profit while spending millions on international expansion plans.
