The Stoke-based company’s impressive financial results came in spite of having to absorb £7.4 million in losses from its majority share in Premier League football club Stoke City.
Serial entrepreneur Peter Coates, 73, is the chairman of Stoke City, a side he acquired in 2006 from the Championship division for £5 million.
It was he who also founded Bet365, along with his accountant daughter Denise, in 2000. The business was then run from a portakabin with funding from Peter Coates’ betting shop business, with Denise subsequently developing the company’s sports betting platform in March 2001.
The online gambling group has since grown to become bigger than William Hill and Ladbrokes’ online combined, and now boasts over 6 million customers in 200 countries across the world. Bet365 also employs more than 1,700 people and is Stoke’s largest private employer.
The business continues to be run as a family operation with Denise Coates and her brother John, the Joint Chief Executives, and their father Peter the Chairman.
Such has been the success of the business that Denise Coates, who owns 50.1% of the shares, has earned £37.5 million in dividends over the last three years alone, plus £4.5 million in pay and pension contributions for 2011.
Commenting on the family enterprise, Stoke born and bred Peter Coates said: “What’s nice is that Denise and John have done this themselves. I get the credit as the figurehead, but it should go to them. We’ve never sought media attention and we don’t seek it now, but we’ve a lot of people working here, and it’s good for them, and good for Stoke.”
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