Denise Coates, the founder of Bet365 Group Ltd. and the United Kingdom’s richest woman, earned an estimated £287 million in 2025, reaffirming her position as one of the highest-paid executives in the world.
According to filings published at the UK registry, Coates received approximately £183 million in dividends and £104 million in salary for the financial year ended March 2025.
The total compensation represents her largest annual payout since 2021 and underscores the scale of wealth generated by the privately held online gambling group.
At 58, Coates remains the majority shareholder and co-chief executive officer of Bet365, one of the world’s largest online sports betting companies. A spokesperson for Coates did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest disclosure.
Details about the compensation
The compensation came in a year when Bet365’s financial performance softened. The company reported pretax profits of £348.7 million from its gambling and sports betting operations, nearly half the level recorded in the previous year. The decline reflects a combination of rising operating costs, regulatory pressures and increased competition across key markets.
Despite the profit drop, Bet365 has continued to pursue aggressive international expansion. The company has recently entered or strengthened its presence in markets such as Brazil, Peru and Serbia, while also deepening its footprint in North America.
The U.S. push followed the Supreme Court’s landmark decision allowing individual states to legalize sports betting, a move that has reshaped the global gambling industry.
Coates’ latest pay package brings her total earnings from salary and dividends over the past decade to more than £2.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prior to the latest disclosure, her net worth was estimated at about $7.3 billion, placing her among the world’s top 500 richest individuals on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
What you should know
The scale of her earnings continues to fuel debate over executive compensation. For context, the median annual pay for chief executives of FTSE 100 companies stands at about £4.2 million, according to research published this year by the High Pay Centre, a UK-based think tank. Coates’ pay, therefore, far exceeds that of most corporate leaders in Britain.
Coates is among the most influential CEOs/founders powering the $2 billion Sport betting industry in Nigeria.
Bet365 was founded in the early 2000s in Stoke-on-Trent, England, and has grown into a global online betting powerhouse, benefiting from the rapid shift toward digital gambling and mobile sports wagering.
Coates, who trained as an accountant, took over her father’s small chain of betting shops at a young age and became managing director at just 22. She later made the pivotal decision to move the business online, a move that proved transformational.
Today, Bet365 operates in dozens of jurisdictions worldwide, and Coates’ latest earnings highlight both the financial rewards of early digital adoption and the continued profitability of online gambling, even amid tighter regulation and slowing growth in mature markets.
