Denise Coates, the billionaire founder and chief executive of Bet365, received at least £280 million in wages and dividends in the year to March 2025, despite the company’s pre-tax profit falling sharply.
The Stoke-on-Trent-based gambling group reported revenue of £4bn for the year, up from £3.7bn in the previous 12 months. However, profit before tax fell to £349m from £627m the previous year, reflecting a significant rise in costs as the company restructured its global operations.
Accounts filed on Tuesday show Coates received a salary of £104 million. As the company’s majority shareholder, she is also entitled to at least half of a £353.6m dividend, bringing her total remuneration from the group to at least £280m.
While this represents a significant increase on the £150m she received last year, it is still well below her record payout of £469m in 2021. Over the course of her career, Coates has now collected more than £2.5bn in wages and dividends from Bet365, which she famously began building from a portable shack in a Stoke car park.
The drop in profits was largely due to a £325 million rise in expenses as Bet365 expanded its presence in the US and South America while withdrawing from China, where online betting is illegal. The company incurred one-off restructuring and reorganization costs of £59 million in connection with the exit from “certain markets”.
Bet365 has long been under scrutiny for its operations in China, although the company has always insisted on complying with local laws. The company only completely stopped accepting bets from Chinese customers at the end of March, meaning further costs associated with the withdrawal could fall into the current financial year.
Despite criticism of Coates’ salary levels, industry insiders often point out that she does not use complex structures to minimize taxes and is one of the UK’s largest single taxpayers. During the year, Bet365 also donated £130 million to the Denise Coates Foundation, which supports a range of charitable causes.
During the year, Bet365 also waived loans to Stoke City, which was spun off from the group and is now controlled by Coates’ brother John.
The accounts contain no reference to previous reports of exploratory talks about a possible £9bn sale of the company. Instead, they underscore Bet365’s strategic focus on regulated markets, particularly the United States, where the company now operates licensed betting services in 16 states after adding five new ones during the year.
The U.S. expansion follows the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to lift the federal ban on sports betting, which sparked rapid state-by-state liberalization that has transformed the American gambling market.
