Denise Coates and family retain top-20 position in The Sunday Times Rich List
Bet365’s Denise, John and Peter rank 17th on list of UK’s wealthiest as their personal fortune swells by an estimated £189m to £8.6bn
The owners of bet365, Denise, John and Peter Coates, have finished 17th on The Sunday Times Rich List for 2022 with an estimated net worth of £8.6bn.
This is the second year running the family have been ranked 17th in the annual run down of the UK’s wealthiest individuals and families despite their fortune increasing by an estimated £189m.
Launched by Denise Coates in 2001 from a temporary building in a Stoke-on-Trent car park, bet365 went on to become one of the largest online bookmakers in the world.
The trio own 93.3% of the business, with the remaining slice belonging to Will Roseff who is behind a small chain of retail shops known as Backhouse Bookmakers.
“Although Covid-19 smashed the sporting calendar, her [Denise’s] Stoke-on-Trent gambling titan grew revenues post-lockdown,” the Sunday Times Rich List wrote.
“With turnover flat across the year at £2.8bn, we continue to value bet365 at £7.1bn.”
The broadsheet newspaper also highlighted how even after a £170m pay cut, Denise Coates’ salary of £249.6m is still thought to be the highest of anyone in the UK.
The family again headed the Sunday Times Tax List in 2021 after paying £481.7m to the Treasury.
As for other gambling industry figures in the roll call of the wealthiest, Playtech founder Teddy Sagi was in 46th spot.
The Israeli businessman’s personal fortune is estimated to be £4bn thanks largely nowadays to his extensive property empire.
He was three positions ahead of Mark Scheinberg, the co-founder of PokerStars who is thought to be worth £3.8bn.
Fred and Peter Done, who launched Betfred part-funded by a winning bet on England being victorious at the 1966 World Cup, moved up 17 places to 120th with a net worth of £1.48bn.
The paper wrote: “Disruption to the sporting calendar cut Betfred’s earnings during the pandemic but there was a £97.7m tax win over VAT on fixed-odds betting machines from 2005 to 2013.”
Ruth Parasol, the co-founder PartyGaming, which is now part of Entain, and her family were in 211th spot on £780m.
Finally, Sir Leonard Blavatnik, who is behind sports streaming platform DAZN, slipped three places from the summit of the Sunday Times Rich List in 2021 to fourth this year. His estimated personal fortune shrunk by £3bn to £20bn, the paper stated.
DAZN is branching out in online gambling with the upcoming launch of DAZN BET and has poached a number of senior execs from operators to run the new venture based out of Gibraltar.