10 Amazing Facts About Denise Coates

10 Amazing Facts About Denise Coates

Denise Coates is a British billionaire businesswoman, the founder, majority shareholder and joint chief executive of online gambling company Bet365. In January 2000, Coates purchased the domain name Bet365.com. 

Bet365.com was launched in 2001 as an online betting site. The business borrowed £15 million from RBS against the family’s betting shop estate. In 2005, these shops were sold to Coral for £40 million, which allowed Coates to pay off the loan to RBS. Here are the 10 amazing facts about Denise Coates.

1. Denise has been the highest-paid chief executive in Britain for several years

In October 2019, Forbes magazine estimated Coates’s net worth at $12.2 billion.  In 2020, she earned a salary of £422 million and dividends of £48 million. 

As of 2021, she has been the highest-paid chief executive in Britain for several years, and is one of the wealthiest women in Britain, according to the Sunday Times Rich list.

2. Denise Coates was born the eldest daughter of Peter Coates

Peter Coates is an English businessman, the co-founder of bet365, and the chairman of Stoke City Football Club. He has been listed as the 25th-richest person in British football. He founded Stadia Catering in the 1960s and Signal Radio in 1983.

3. Coates is the chief executive of the online gambling company Bet365

.The original uploader was Patrick O’Canada at English Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In January 2000, Coates purchased the domain name Bet365.com. Bet365.com was launched in 2001 as an online betting site. The business borrowed £15 million from RBS against the family’s betting shop estate. 

In 2005, these shops were sold to Coral for £40 million, which allowed Coates to pay off the loan to RBS. As of 2016, Bet365 is one of the world’s largest online gambling companies, with $2 billion in revenues and facilitating $45 billion in yearly bets. Read more on 15 Most Famous Business Women in the world. 

4. Denise earned a first-class degree from the University of Sheffield

Denise studied econometrics at the University of Sheffield. Econometrics is an application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships.

After leaving university, she continued to work at Provincial Racing, as an accountant. Following this, Coates became managing director of the small chain of shops in 1995.

5. Bet365 owns a majority stake in Stoke City Football Club

Einar Fond, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the EFL Championship. 

Peter Coates, Denise’s father is the chairman of Stoke City Football Club.

6. Coates’s personal fortune is estimated at $5.2 billion

Coates owns around half of Bet365. Her personal fortune is estimated at $5.2 billion, as of December 2022.

Coates is unusual amongst high-net-worth individuals in taking the majority of her income as salary rather than dividends. She was the highest taxpayer in Britain from 2019-2022.

7. In 2018, Denise was the  highest-paid woman in the world

In 2017, Coates was criticized for paying herself £217 million, with Mike Dixon, CEO of Addaction, saying “It cannot be right that the CEO of a betting company is paid 22 times more than the whole industry ‘donates’ to treatment.”

In 2018, it was announced that her salary had increased to £265 million, around 9,500 times more than the average UK salary. Her salary of £421 million in 2020 was 50% higher than it was in 2019, and higher than all FTSE 100 Index CEOs combined. Read more on 55 Most Influential Women Entrepreneurs. 

8. Coates was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire

PicturePrince, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In January 2012, Coates was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the community and business. 

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service.

9. Coates set up the Bet365 Foundation in August 2012

In February 2016 it was renamed Denise Coates Foundation. It is a registered charity under English law and it donated £100 million to twenty UK charities as of 2014. In 2022 the charity donated £1 million to help families in Ukraine.

Charities which have received funds include Oxfam, CAFOD, the Douglas Macmillan Hospice for cancer sufferers in Stoke, and relief programmes for victims caught in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. University scholarships and theatre donations have also been offered

10. Denise drives an Aston Martin with personalized number plates bearing her initials

Denise lives a life of extreme luxury and she has been spotted driving an Aston Martin with a personalized number plate. Coates is married to Richard Smith, and they live in Betchton near Sandbach, Cheshire. They have five children.