Denise Coates is the billionaire founder of the world’s biggest online betting company. She’s currently the company’s co-CEO alongside her brother John Coates.
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Early Life
Ms Coates is the eldest daughter of Peter and Deirdre Coates. Peter was the son of a miner and the youngest of 14 children. He tried to build a career for himself in football at Stoke City F.C. but to no avail so he started a chain of bet shops named Provincial Racing. By 1989 he became the majority shareholder of Stoke City F.C.
Denise Coates was born on September 26th, 1967. She’d always been an introvert so nothing much can be said about her childhood except that she gained admission into Sheffield University to study Econometrics in her teens.
While at the university she worked in her father’s business in the cashier department and rose through the ranks there to become the Managing Director, after graduating from the University, taking several pieces of training in other fields like accounting.
She wasn’t comfortable with the business, she called it “a small chain of pretty rubbish betting shops.” She hated bookkeeping and wanted something bigger. This gave birth to the biggest venture she had ever taken, Bet365. In one of her few interviews she said:
“I never gave it a second thought. It didn’t cross my mind. I probably had a few [meetings] at first where I had to put somebody right – but I knew my business, so it wasn’t a problem. I just wanted to get on with making my business successful”
Bet365 Chief Executive / Managing Director
Denise Coates is currently no 1 at bet365. A company she founded after intense hard work managing her father’s chain of bet shops. She took over her father’s business at 22.
Bet365 was the product of the desire to take these little bet shops online after seeing the geometric growth of the internet. She bought the bet365.com domain in 2000. She first brought her brother, John Coates (an attorney at that time) on board. When she realised that she can’t afford to set up the website she decided to source funds but no investor believed in her dream. She turned to the Royal Bank of Scotland and was able to get a loan of £18million from the bank (using Provincial Racing as collateral). With this, she was able to start up.
Bet365 started in 2001 and Denise worked 24/7 to achieve her goals. In 2005, Bet365 was already booming so she took bold steps in business. She sold Provincial Racing to Coral for about $50million. From this fund, she liquidated her loan with the Royal Bank of Scotland. By 2013, Bet365 accrued over $187million in profits.
Denise, her father and her brother became the first billionaires in their lineage.
Family
She’s currently married to Richard Smith. Denise Coates met her husband, Richard Smith, at Sheffield University where she got her first degree in Econometrics.
Denise Coates Children
Her marriage is blessed with 5 children. Independent reports that four of them were adopted from one family.
How much is Denise Coates Salary
Denise Coates is Britain’s highest salary earner in the UK. In 2021, she took home a whooping £469million. £421million as her salary as head of the company and £48million because she owns 50.3% of the entire stock.
Denise Coates Sandbach House
Her salary caused quite a rumble in the business world and people were asking why she would chunk such amount to herself. But it is understood that she’s building a luxurious Sandbach House in Cheshire village for herself.
This glass mansion is said to be worth £90million and stands on 52acres.
How Old is Denise Coates?
Denise was born September 26th, 1967. Currently, she’s 56 years old.
Accolades
In 2013, she was featured on the list of 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom.
In 2014, she was honoured with the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
Staffordshire University awarded her the Doctoral Honours for her doing so well in business.
Denise Coates Foundation
In 2012, Denise established the Bet365 Foundation which she later renamed Denise Coates Foundation. The foundation was created to assist chains of charity organizations in the UK. The foundation was worth £337.8billion in 2019 and donated £10million to fight covid in 2020.
Net Worth
Ms Coates, despite her huge pay, is UK’s 5th richest businesswoman behind Marit and Kirsten Rausing, Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Kirsty Bertarelli.
Denise Coates, according to Forbes, is worth £5.8billion. This makes her the 52nd richest in the tech industry and 403rd richest on the planet. Her wealth is majorly from her betting company which she worked hard to build in her younger days.
Though she currently drives an Aston Martin, this billionaire entrepreneur doesn’t show off and prefers to keep a low profile.