The Centaur Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/31/bet365-boss-denise-coates-pay-may-exceed-1bn-in-four-years Perhaps we should start a collection for NZ's McKenzie. (Incidently the topic is banned on Channel X) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Bet365 boss’s £421m pay for 2020 takes earnings over £1bn in four years Bumper package for Denise Coates comes as gambling firm reports fall in revenue Denise Coates said the company ‘continued to make considerable progress during the period’. Photograph: Alex Severn/Bet365/PA Rob Davies @ByRobDavies Wed 31 Mar 2021 16.17 BST The boss of gambling website Bet365, Denise Coates, was paid nearly half a billion pounds in salary and dividends last year, as the latest in a string of record-breaking awards took her total pay since 2016 to nearly £1.3bn. After an unusual delay in filing its accounts at Companies House, Bet365 revealed that its highest-paid director, understood to be Coates as chief executive, received £421m – or £48,000 every hour of every day throughout the 12-month period. In its accounts, the company said its pay arrangements were “appropriate and fair”. Bet365 also paid a dividend of £95m, signalling a separate windfall of around £45m for Coates, who owns more than half of the empire she built out of her father Peter’s Stoke-on-Trent bookmaking business. The deal is just the latest bumper package for Coates, who – together with Peter and her brother John – ranked 16th in last year’s Sunday Times rich list with a fortune of £7bn. It is also likely to cement the family’s position as the UK’s largest taxpayers, contributing more than £500m a year when factoring in Bet365’s corporation tax. But critics of excess pay and the gambling industry alike said it was hard to justify the scale of the rewards on offer to Coates. “Of course rich people pay more tax, they have grossly disproportionate incomes,” said Luke Hildyard, the director of the High Pay Centre. “What’s relevant is how much money they have after tax and in her case it’s more than anyone can spend in multiple lifetimes,” he said. “It’s appallingly inefficient for single individuals to hoard wealth in this way when fairer systems of taxation could mean the wealth is instead used to support better public services or raise living standards for low- and middle-income earners.” Coates paid herself £323m in 2019, including salary and dividends on her stake of more than 50% in the firm, based in Stoke-on-Trent. The pay packet, then a record for a UK chief executive, took her income over three years to £817m. The new enhanced deal takes her pay and dividends since 2016 to nearly £1.3bn. The Scottish National party MP Ronnie Cowan, a vocal advocate of tougher gambling regulation, acknowledged Coates’ hard work and success but added: “When the industry is creating so much harm in the community, when it is the most deprived areas that see the most damage and when the industry is in denial in regard to the damage it does, then salaries of this magnitude will always draw criticism.” Bet365 reported an 8% fall in revenue to £2.81bn for the 52-week period ending 29 March 2020, partly due to the cancellation of sporting events as the Covid pandemic took hold last year, on top of the lack of a major football tournament during the period. Operating profit fell by 74% to £194.7m, down from £758.3m in 2019, owing to the reduction in revenue but also as a result of a bumper pay rise for its four directors, only one of whom is not a Coates family member. The combined pay of the quartet leapt from £373m to £529m. The company, which also owns Stoke City football club, will not publish results covering most of the pandemic period for at least another nine months, but it is likely to have done extremely well given the increase in online gambling seen at rival companies. Coates has become Britain’s best-paid woman while building the Bet365 empire after recognising the power of internet gambling early on and pioneering hugely popular in-play bets on football, which has overtaken horse racing in popularity among gamblers. She took the company from a small operation housed in a portable building in a Stoke car park to a globe-straddling multibillion-pound empire in the process. Bet365 has repeatedly declined to give a breakdown of the geographical spread of its business, despite past allegations of offering bets in China, where it is illegal to do so. In its accounts, Bet365 said disclosing regional income would be “severely prejudicial” to the group. The company said it had donated £85m to the Denise Coates Foundation, supporting causes such as the Douglas Macmillan Hospice and Alzheimer’s Research UK. The foundation’s page on the Charity Commission website offers no indication of whether any money goes to problem gambling treatment but Bet365 said it had made advances in protecting vulnerable people via its early risk detection system. Coates said: “On behalf of the board I am pleased to report that the group continued to make considerable progress during the period, particularly in the priority area of safer gambling, where significant investment and developments have been made. “The period also saw the initial impact of Covid-19, with sport at all levels halted across the world. I am delighted with how the group responded and adapted to these challenging circumstances.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Topics like this are too relevant to be banned! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Centaur Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 1 hour ago, Chief Stipe said: Topics like this are too relevant to be banned! The point I was making that when the market% is at 140% then no wonder the bookmaker makes that much. Also how hypocritical for TAB NZ telling us not to bet with overseas bookies yet go into partnership with Paddy Power & OpenBet. On a different note the TAB website change in layout with the Wininsurance is the first sign of any innovative software programming I have seen on the $60M disaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Stipe Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 18 minutes ago, The Centaur said: On a different note the TAB website change in layout with the Wininsurance is the first sign of any innovative software programming I have seen on the $60M disaster. All well and good but WTF can I do to change the front page when I sign on to be Racing NOT sport! Not only am I not interested in soccer fullstop I care even less about FIFA Electronic Football! FFS friends of mine can't even get a $10 Exacta on without being restricted! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rangatira Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 48 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said: All well and good but WTF can I do to change the front page when I sign on to be Racing NOT sport! most annoying when I am recording a game and I get to see the in play odds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Centaur Posted April 1, 2021 Author Share Posted April 1, 2021 9 hours ago, Chief Stipe said: Topics like this are too relevant to be banned! Just to set record straight. Was banned temporarily. Now unbanned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLB2.0 Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 21 hours ago, The Centaur said: The point I was making that when the market% is at 140% then no wonder the bookmaker makes that much. Also how hypocritical for TAB NZ telling us not to bet with overseas bookies yet go into partnership with Paddy Power & OpenBet. On a different note the TAB website change in layout with the Wininsurance is the first sign of any innovative software programming I have seen on the $60M disaster. Winsurance just copies what Bet365 does, so it's not innovative at all. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultra Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 BET365 are just absolute scum of the earth. Restricted my bets into submission and now refusing to release winnings on a "deposit technicality". I have instigated complaint proceedings with gambling commission. It appears they are just making things difficult to piss me off. They have succeeded. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 (edited) 28 minutes ago, Ultra said: BET365 are just absolute scum of the earth. Restricted my bets into submission and now refusing to release winnings on a "deposit technicality". I have instigated complaint proceedings with gambling commission. It appears they are just making things difficult to piss me off. They have succeeded. They dont profit from winners. Just to add I often wonder how much they contribute to any sport or racing organisation in NZ,after all they take bets on our racing and all of our sport as well. Edited April 2, 2021 by mikeynz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Centaur Posted April 2, 2021 Author Share Posted April 2, 2021 1 hour ago, Ultra said: BET365 are just absolute scum of the earth. Restricted my bets into submission and now refusing to release winnings on a "deposit technicality". I have instigated complaint proceedings with gambling commission. It appears they are just making things difficult to piss me off. They have succeeded. Exactly and they are allowed to operate financially from Gibraltar or somewhere. Just imagine where UK racing would be if the profits the bookies made were retained in racing. I guess the "gentry" running racing in the UK are more worried the waiter has got his tie on straight. Wow if they are restricting you then you must be making a profit. Keep it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 It's actually probably one of the slickest websites I think there is online,let's forget about the negatives as such like trying to get money out of them in some cases The live in play for sport actually intrigues me how they can have game amiinations,(I think that's the right word) live and up to the second from anywhere in the world is rather clever,how they do it ,it would be nice to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeynz Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 (edited) Maybe animations is the word I'm seeking. Edited April 2, 2021 by mikeynz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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