Former Sheffield student and Bet365 boss Denise Coates earned UK’s biggest ever salary at £469 million last year

The boss of gambling firm Bet365 has reportedly earned a pay packet worth £469 million in a single year.
By Dan Windham
Published 1st Apr 2021, 07:10 BST
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The former Sheffield University student Denise Coates, 53, is said to have earned a £421 million salary in a 12-month period, along with £48 million in dividends – thought to be one of the biggest packages in UK corporate history.

She founded the online gambling company in the early 2000s in Stoke-on-Trent after spotting the potential of internet betting to revolutionise the industry.

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The company told the BBC the arrangements were “appropriate and fair”.

bet365 Chief Executive Denise Coates poses with her Commander of the British Empire (CBE) medal (Photo by Sean Dempsey - WPA Pool/Getty Images)bet365 Chief Executive Denise Coates poses with her Commander of the British Empire (CBE) medal (Photo by Sean Dempsey - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
bet365 Chief Executive Denise Coates poses with her Commander of the British Empire (CBE) medal (Photo by Sean Dempsey - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The salary is a significant hike on the basic wage of almost £277 million that she took home in the year ending March 2019, when she was comfortably the highest-paid boss in the country.

Ms Coates, Bet365’s joint chief executive, was the country’s largest taxpayer for the second year running, according to the last annual Sunday Times Tax List.

Related topics:Sheffield