Bet365 boss Denise Coates rakes in £280m pay packet despite weaker profits

Bet365 boss Denise Coates has maintained her position as one of the UK’s top-paid executives after her pay deal soared to at least £280 million over the past year.

The billionaire boss, who runs the betting giant alongside her brother, received the bumper total pay deal despite weaker profits at the firm.

Freshly-filed Companies House accounts for the Stoke-based business show she received a salary of £104 million for the year to March 2025.

The accounts also show the business paid a £353.6 million dividend to shareholders for the year – more than three times what it paid out a year earlier.

She will be eligible for at least half of this, or almost £177 million, as majority shareholder of the business.

Ms Coates therefore received at least £280 million for the year, representing a sharp rise from the roughly £159 million deal she got last year.

It takes her total pay and dividends to around £1.8 billion for the past eight years.

The increase comes after the group reported stronger revenues, which rose 9% to 4.04 billion for the year, on the back of growth in both its sports and gaming operations.

Growth benefited from a “successful” Euro 2024 tournament during the financial year and expansion into new markets.

However, the pay increase also came despite the group revealing that pre-tax profits slid to £338.5 million from £596.3 million a year earlier.

In May, the Guardian reported Ms Coates and her family were assessing a potential sale of the business which could value it at up to £9 billion.