bet365 Boss Paid £260M for Year to March
Denise Coates is one of the biggest names in the gambling industry. As owner of bet365, her salary runs up into the hundreds of millions of pounds annually and every year she appears in the news, due to her massive pay packet. This past year is no different, either. The multibillionaire bet365 boss collected annual pay and dividends of over £260 million. That’s one of the biggest pay awards in the world, yet it still pales in comparison to her salary in 2020 when she hit a peak of £471 million.
The origins of bet365 are synonymous with Coates. She was the one who set up the company in a portacabin in Stoke-on-Trent back in 2000. In the year to March 2022, she received a salary of £213 million according to the latest accounts published by bet365 on Friday, January 6th. At the same time, she gets at least 50% of the £100 million in dividend paid out for the year. Even though her pay package is a £35 million drop on the previous year, she remains one of the world’s best-paid executives.
Her pay packet is, of course, massive. In fact, she earns over £1 million for each working day of the year, so, why the decline in this year’s payment? Well, one of the primary reasons is bet365’s spending outlay. The company spent millions on international expansion to March 2022. It also paid out less profit in the same timeframe. Coates’ salary also took a cut as a result, although she’s not likely to miss it considering her worth.
Since 2016, she has been on the receiving end of almost £1.5 billion from bet365. This has led to her appearing as one of the highest-paid executives in Britain. She also maintains her status as the best paid woman in the world due to this. This comes at a time when many in the UK, and worldwide, are struggling with the cost of living.
Is it right that Coates gets to receive such a mass of money every year? Well that is a subjective question but one thing we should bear in mind is she does at least choose to pay herself in the UK and mostly in salary, this means she pays a hell of a lot of tax. That is more than can be said for other gambling bosses who happily earn most of their money offshore and we never even hear about what they get paid, let alone the tax avoided.
“Hopelessly Inefficient Pay Packet”, Says High Pay Centre
The High Pay Centre campaigns for restraint in excessive executive pay. Speaking for the organisation, director Luke Hildyard said Coates’ payout is “inefficient”. He noted it is a huge amount of money to go to one individual, especially with the current crisis. Many people in Britain are “going through such hardship”, making it feel like a slap in the face to them. He spoke further on the executive’s payment to March 2022, claiming:
“A payment this size is obviously vastly more than necessary to encourage or reward success. Even the best business leaders depend on things beyond their control like an educated workforce, affluent customers and a stable economy…”
Hildyard said that there is “no moral or economic justification” for the extreme payout. He highlighted how it has the ability to cause inequality and division.
Yet Coates has been receiving such huge payouts for a long time now. You can look back over previous years to see that her salary is always in the hundreds of millions. She has remained the best-paid executive throughout those years. In 2016, she received £217 million. This rose to £265 million in 2017, £276.5 million in 2018 and then £323 million in 2019. As noted, her biggest payout came in 2020, when she hit the £471 million figure. The payout for this year has decreased in a very obvious way, yet this still doesn’t negate the massive figure she gets.
The likelihood is that her payment would have been a lot higher for the year to March 2022 had it not been for the £320 million in extra expenses that had a knock-on impact on this. That money went towards advertising in new markets. Extra computers were also purchased for further expansion. As a result, bet365 has launched in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It has also introduced itself to the Netherlands, as well as Colorado and Ontario. This has also seen the company’s employee roster increase to almost 6,100 from 5,400 year-on-year.
Coates Pays A Lot More Tax Than Other Gambling Company Owners
Coates has received criticism throughout her tenure as bet365’s boss. The large majority of that backlash has been about her salary. Furthermore, she pays herself, for the most part, in salary and so it is all declared to the British government. In this respect, she pays a lot of tax on the money she earns. While it’s true that many would say this is only fair, it’s not the case for many other bosses of betting firms.
It is common for gambling companies to base themselves offshore. This sees executives avoid having to pay tax into the UK system. Why do you think so many firms base themselves out of Malta or Gibraltar, for example? Because there is a lower rate of tax systems active within. This way, executives don’t end up paying such vast amounts in tax.
When it comes to Denise Coates, her salary does have UK tax taken from it, almost all the high rate, and so she is contributing to the British system. The higher the amount she receives, the more tax she ends up paying, too. The fact she pays herself mostly in salary rather than dividends also increases the amount she pays in tax.
That’s not to take away from the fact that her huge salary comes at a difficult time. The United Kingdom, like other countries, is facing various troubles. Many people aren’t equipped to deal with the rising cost of living. Energy bills and the increasing cost of food is devastating some families in the country.
The general secretary of the TUC, Paul Nowak, called for the government to take action. He said that it should intervene and “bring back some fairness” in relation to pay. Many lower-paid workers tend to struggle with severe cuts to their income. Yet that doesn’t affect the top-paid people in the same way. “Ministers must set out plans for fair pay for everyone”, said Nowak.
