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Bet365 recently reported a £72million annual loss. Yet the company's reclusive owner and richest woman in Great Britain, Denise Coates, apparently took in a cool £271million in pay, or £742,000 a day. She's taken in £2.3billion in 2014.
The math doesn't add up, as noted by The Mirror.
The outlet reports that the companies losses are mostly fueled by expansion abroad and losses at Stoke City Football Club, which it owns.
Think tank the High Pay Centre said that Ms Coates’ bumper pay package was not fair or appropriate. Luke Hildyard, its executive director, said: “People deserve to be rewarded for innovation and success, but there’s a question of what’s sensible and proportionate. Nobody becomes a multi-billionaire in isolation from wider society.
“In this case, the wealth depends on money coming out of gamblers’ pockets, the efforts of thousands of staff, plus wider factors like people having some disposable income, a secure and reliable internet network or all the infrastructure that goes into staging sports events.”
Coates went from living in an isolated farm house to residing in on a £90million estate with her husband. The estate is said to include a sunken tennis court, stables, ornamental gardens, workers’ cottages and a boathouse.
Ms Coates once said in a rare interview: “I was convinced early on that gambling would work well on the internet. It is private, accessible and allows you to present a huge range of betting opportunities to customers.”
Revenues did rise by double-digits at Bet365 but the company lost more than £69 million for the period ending March 2023, their first loss since 2003.
“People deserve to be rewarded for innovation and success but there’s a question of what’s sensible and proportionate,” Luke Hildyard, executive director of the High Pay Centre, said in a statement sent to CNN this week.
The High Pay Centre is a UK think tank carrying out research and analysis on issues relating to top incomes, corporate governance, and business performance and is often critical of existing top pay practices while advocating for policies designed to reduce economic inequality.
“Nobody becomes a multi-billionaire in isolation from wider society. In this case, the wealth depends on money coming out of gamblers’ pockets, the efforts of thousands of staff, plus wider factors like people having some disposable income, a secure and reliable internet network or all the infrastructure that goes into staging sports events.
“Ultimately, Britain’s prosperity depends on how the wealth our economy generates is shared. Pouring hundreds of millions of pounds more on top of billionaire fortunes every year isn’t a good way to maximise living standards and it over-values the contribution that the super-rich have made.”
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
