Bumper Revenues for Bet365 (and CEO Denise Coates)
Just last week, we reported on the increased revenues for gambling operators across the European market in the past year. Now, those strong results have been reflected in the performance of one of the continent’s biggest stars—Bet365.
Over the March 2018-19 financial year, the UK-based provider raked in £2.98 billion ($3.8 billion), up 10% from last year’s figure.
This gave Bet365 an annual profit of over £750 million, falling to about £650 million after-tax.
UK Record-Breaking Salary
However, the biggest story for many news outlets over the coming weeks will undoubtedly be Bet365’s CEO Denise Coates and her massive £422 million pay packet.
As a private family-owned company that, amongst other investments, also owns Stoke City Football Club, Bet365 is under no obligation to publicly reveal data about its company accounts under UK law.
However, the company would have a hard time keeping that £400 million payout quiet, which now makes Coates the best-paid CEO in the UK. It also beats her record-breaking figure of £287 million from last year.
Forbes Magazine now estimates her personal wealth sits at around $12 billion.
Where From?
Assuming a 40-hour working week, Denise Coates has an hourly wage of over $200,000. So what have customers been playing to give Bet365 so much profit this year?
Mainly, in-game sports betting. Casino revenues account for about 40% of the company’s income, with sports betting taking up the rest. Seventy-nine percent of that was wagered during live games.
Mobile customers, especially casino players, saw a decent rise in numbers over this period—up 18% on the previous year. However, that growth was a lot smaller than in the earlier years of this decade.
Adding to that growth was last year’s FIFA Football World Cup, one of the biggest sports betting events in the world held every four years, as well as a raft of successful cost-cutting measures.
Interestingly, Bet365 cut costs in many areas while simultaneously managing to expand and hire new employees. In fact, Bet365 is the biggest employer in its hometown of Stoke on Trent, with nearly 4,000 people working in its head offices.
No matter what you think of a pay packet that size, you can’t deny that the strategy Denise Coates is following to run the company is working.
Never Controversy Free
However, there are rarely any significant profits without some dissenting voices in the mix. This year, Bet365 was accused of blocking the accounts of gamblers with winning records in Australia and embroiled in a long court case over the trademark of its name in Europe.
Lastly, there’s an ongoing story about the company’s alleged operations in China, where gambling is highly illegal and punishable with prison sentences, yet laws for foreign operators are continuously unclear.
For the second year in a row, despite pressure from various UK politicians and campaign groups, Bet365 has refused to offer a geographical breakdown of its revenues in the same way as most EU-based gambling firms.
The company has stated many times that “any allegation of illegality on the part of Bet365 is categorically untrue.”
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