Denise Coates
Company: Bet365
Wealth Estimate: £4.5 billion
Born into a family that ran a small bookmaking firm in Stoke, Denise Coates took a gamble on the then-fledgling world of online betting to create Bet365, which ultimately made her the richest woman in UK tech by a considerable distance. In 2001, Coates borrowed £15 million against the family’s estate of betting shops to build a business around a domain name she bought on eBay.
The in-play betting boom helped turn Bet365 into arguably Britain’s most famous gambling brand. While much of the betting sector used third-party technology to come up with their live odds, Bet365 built almost its entire product in-house.
Unlike most other billionaires, a large chunk of Coates’ wealth is paid to her as salary. That meant she has repeatedly been Britain’s top-paid executive, earning as much as £421 million in a single year, ahead of figures who accumulated more wealth.
Still, the fact that Britain’s largest salary was paid with gambling losses has been criticised by MPs, as has the murky question of how much of Bet365’s profits come from China, where online gambling is prohibited.
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