Bet365 CEO Denise Coates Earns £1.2 Million a Day in Last Year
UK Gambling boss Denise Coates has received £469million for the last year cementing her place as Britain's highest paid CEO.
Following its later than usual filings with Companies House, UK Gambling firm Bet365 have revealed that Chief Executive Denise Coates has been rewarded with one of the biggest pay packets in UK corporate history totalling £469m.
The company’s filings show that as the highest paid director, founder and majority shareholder, Denise Coates CBE has earned a salary of £421m in the year ending 29 March. In addition to her salary she also earned £48m in dividends, taking her total pay to £469m. Her pay in the last year means that she earned almost as much as the bosses of every FTSE 100 company combined.
The news may come as a surprise to some given that the companies overall profits fell last year. Bet365 reported a sales fall of 8% to £2.8bn with profits also sinking 74% to £194.7m. It is thought that this reduction is largely due to the amount of international sporting events that have been cancelled, postponed or managed differently due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the fall in sales, Bet365 have been one of the few businesses that have opted not to take use of the government’s furlough scheme or turned to staff pay cuts and redundancies to help it through the pandemic.
Bet365 said the arrangements for the executives pay were “appropriate and fair” despite the sales drop. Coates, who hails from Stoke-on-Trent founded the Bet365 as an online only betting website over 20 years ago, has been the UK’s highest paid boss for several years.
Her earnings through the company she started since its inception have positioned her as one of Britain’s wealthiest women. She is also a high-profile philanthropist, founding her own Denise Coates Foundation, which she uses to donate millions. The company filings also show that it paid £85m to Ms Coates’s charitable foundation.
Ms Coates earnings could well be the largest pay packets ever. It was thought that hedge fund tycoon Sir Chris Hohn had taken this honour after awarding himself £343 last year, however it appears the Bet365 CEO has firmly wrestled back that particular crown.
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