Bet365 boss Denise Coates earns £280m as profits fall despite £4bn profit
Denise Coates, the billionaire founder and chief executive of Bet365, has received at least £280m in pay and dividends in the year to March 2025, despite a sharp fall in the company’s pre-tax profits.
The Stoke-on-Trent-based gambling group reported profits of £4bn for the year, up from £3.7bn in the previous 12 months. Pre-tax profit, however, fell to £349m from £627m last year, reflecting a major increase in costs as the business restructures its global operations.
Accounts filed on Tuesday show Coates was paid a salary of £104m. As the company’s majority shareholder, he is also entitled to at least half of the £353.6m share capital, taking his total earnings at the club to at least £280m.
While this represents a significant increase on the £150m he earned last year, it still falls short of his record payout of £469m in 2021. Over the course of his career, Coates has now forked out more than £2.5bn in wages and dividends from Bet365, which he famously started building out of a portable cupboard in a Stoke car park.
The fall in profits was largely due to a £325m increase in costs as Bet365 expanded its presence in the US and South America while withdrawing from China, where online betting is illegal. The company incurred £59m in restructuring and restructuring charges associated with its exit from “certain markets”.
Bet365 has long faced scrutiny over its operations in China, although it has always insisted it complies with local laws. The company didn’t fully stop betting on Chinese customers until the end of March, meaning some of the costs associated with the withdrawal could come into this financial year.
Despite criticism of Coates’ salary estimate, industry figures often point out that he does not use complex structures to reduce tax and is among the UK’s biggest taxpayers. During the year, Bet365 also donated £130m to the Denise Coates Foundation, which supports a range of charitable causes.
During the year, Bet365 also canceled loans to Stoke City, who were kicked out of the club and are now controlled by Coates’ brother, John.
The accounts do not refer to earlier reports of exploratory talks about a possible £9bn sale of the business. Instead, they emphasize Bet365’s strategic focus on regulated markets, especially in the United States, where it now operates licensed betting services in 16 states after entering five new ones during the year.
The US expansion follows the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to overturn a ban on sports betting, resulting in state-by-state liberalization that has transformed the American gambling market.
