She owns half of the company - unless they need to recycle the excess cash flow back into the business or make acquisitions, there isn’t much choice but to pay it out in dividends/remuneration or buy back shares.
£48m more than she was paid in 2017 and in 2017 she earned £217m
Earned? No one earns that much. She's a bookie, they take money from idiots. Any other walk of life would call it stealing.
Well yes she has earned it, she's built a company up from nothing over 20 years, had the foresight to predict the future success of online gambling and is now a billionaire. If it was that easy, i'm sure others would've done it. Good luck to her.
Also no one seems to have mentioned (apart from @bobmunro) that she also gave £75 million to charity last year.
If i earned 250m+ a year, i wouldnt worry about giving 75m to charity in order to be able deflect and say what a kind generous person i am. What charity does she give it to, Gamblers Anonymous?
I didn't realise you knew her so well to be able to pass that sort of judgement.
She gives to a number of charities - just one recent example being the full funding at a cost of £5m of an extension to a children's hospice in Stoke enabling 18+ year olds to remain in the safety and comforting environment of the hospice instead of being farmed out to council care homes. Add to that the funding for the ongoing revenue costs. No she didn't do it to deflect and say what a kind generous person she is - she did it because she can and to give back to the community. Another example of her generosity in both money and spirit is paying for one of our employees to go to America for a heart and lung transplant that wasn't available to him in the UK - at a total cost running into seven figures. It is profound regret that I will be going to his funeral on Monday.
Apart from my family, she is the person I most respect on this planet.
Weird. I do a lot of accounting but have to confess I have limited experience of charities accounting. It seems like that's just a massive investment vehicle with a charity attached. It's got £186m of funds/Investments, but spent £6 million in the year on charitable activities. Not criticising as £6million in charitable donations is great, just never realised how much cash these charities would keep in reserve.
Weird. I do a lot of accounting but have to confess I have limited experience of charities accounting. It seems like that's just a massive investment vehicle with a charity attached. It's got £186m of funds/Investments, but spent £6 million in the year on charitable activities. Not criticising as £6million in charitable donations is great, just never realised how much cash these charities would keep in reserve.
The goal I assume is to enable them to make a certain annual grant target in perpetuity - depending on investment returns, ongoing top-ups etc this may only allow say 5% pa grants.
Some benefactors like to give it all away in their lifetimes (personal choice not necessarily in the beneficiaries’ best long term interest).
Weird. I do a lot of accounting but have to confess I have limited experience of charities accounting. It seems like that's just a massive investment vehicle with a charity attached. It's got £186m of funds/Investments, but spent £6 million in the year on charitable activities. Not criticising as £6million in charitable donations is great, just never realised how much cash these charities would keep in reserve.
All of that money is irrevocably held in trust and earns income to be redistributed to worthy causes - yes an investment vehicle but with ALL income being used for good causes. The fund will continue to accumulate significant reserves and will be used as the vehicle for Denise on her career after she finishes with bet365 - she will then full-time hands-on run the foundation.
Weird. I do a lot of accounting but have to confess I have limited experience of charities accounting. It seems like that's just a massive investment vehicle with a charity attached. It's got £186m of funds/Investments, but spent £6 million in the year on charitable activities. Not criticising as £6million in charitable donations is great, just never realised how much cash these charities would keep in reserve.
All of that money is irrevocably held in trust and earns income to be redistributed to worthy causes - yes an investment vehicle but with ALL income being used for good causes. The fund will continue to accumulate significant reserves and will be used as the vehicle for Denise on her career after she finishes with bet365 - she will then full-time hands-on run the foundation.
Yeah I understand the motive as charities can't make a distibutable profit. If anything it shows how much of a long term ambition it is for her and that's a great thing.
A real chance for her to leave a positive legacy amongst all the misery the industry creates.
I really don't understand sometimes peoples views.
Here is a lady that has built up a company from almost nothing (believe her dad owned a Bookies before hand), has created god knows how many jobs, gives huge sums to charitable/worthy causes (the charity has had over 200m by the looks of it) and as Bob has highlighted there will be lots of other things she does that rightly don't make it into the public domain. She very much reminds me of my old chairman, he was of similar character, wealthy beyond my imagination but not in that league.
If there were more Denise Coates in this country it would be a much better place, she's clearly a very intelligent, kind and generous person. But some will knock her because she earns a bucket load of money, very sad. The only clear mistake she made was starting her business in Stoke and not Charlton .
@Chippycafc you're right, judge a man by the company he keeps, as we all know, @bobmunro is clearly a top bloke.
£48m more than she was paid in 2017 and in 2017 she earned £217m
Earned? No one earns that much. She's a bookie, they take money from idiots. Any other walk of life would call it stealing.
Well yes she has earned it, she's built a company up from nothing over 20 years, had the foresight to predict the future success of online gambling and is now a billionaire. If it was that easy, i'm sure others would've done it. Good luck to her.
Also no one seems to have mentioned (apart from @bobmunro) that she also gave £75 million to charity last year.
If i earned 250m+ a year, i wouldnt worry about giving 75m to charity in order to be able deflect and say what a kind generous person i am. What charity does she give it to, Gamblers Anonymous?
A company along with the others whose entire business model and existence is built on profiting from people's misfortune.
Every pound earned coming from someone unintentionally losing a quid.
Very good business sense and remarkable growth but very little to admire as it's an industry whose entire premise is to exploit the bad decisions of the public including a significant proportion who certainly can't afford to be doing it.
It's a scandal that gambling has become so central to our economy and you can't go more than 2 minutes without the brainwashing seductive advertising campaigns pummelling you from every angle on social and mainstream media.
It's a world away from having the odd flutter on the horses or punt on the odd match at local turf accountants and not very admirable whatsoever.
Wonder how big her payout will be when some rich Chinese company buys-out Bet365 entirely? Not too hard to guess.
2017 profits = £504M average PE of gaming stocks globally = 8x Because it is online and growing faster, I bet it could get 10x earnings, easily £5.04 billion company net worth Denise ownership share = 50.1% Net worth = £2.5 billion+, or $3.2B American.
This would make her, I believe, the richest "self made" (I use that term lightly) woman in the world. I had never heard of her until this post. Impressive.
I have the great good fortune of calling this lady a close personal friend, and if you knew her then you would know that a) she gives a big chunk of that away, b) she works like no other person I have ever known and c) she has the most astute business brain of any one I've ever met, or am ever likely to meet.
As an employee and a friend naturally you will defend her and to be fair she sounds like a good woman. Just because it’s a betting firm doesn’t mean she has to give those amounts away so fair play to her for that.
But at the same time she earns so much because people give her that money. I have a particular dislike for Bet365 for personal reasons and you can’t pretend she is some god when thousands out there ruin there lives while she pays herself several million.
While I think there's a problem with gambling in our society, I don't think you can hold one person to account for it, nor has there been any question of her company operating outside the law. The immense salary she's drawing is in part because of our society being "relaxed" about gambling , and in part due to her success in running the business. I don't gamble apart from the odd lottery ticket, so apart from the general social issue of gambling and how the company treats its staff, pays its taxes etc, it's none of my business how much the owners of a private business pay themselves. Much like other IT successes, she was in the right place at the right time and had the vision to make it work.
When most well-known top business people are utter scumbags like Phillip Green or greedy tax-dodgers like Branson, it's quite refreshing to see one buck the trend and give a lot back.
I don't gamble generally, but I do the lottery and when the prize is huge, Euromillions. I am troubled by those who destroy their lives, and the lives of those around them by their gambling. Apropos the notion above about unintentional losses I would say my losses are actually intentional! By that I mean with Euromillions for example I am paying to 'legitimise' my fantasy of buying Charlton, or with the general lottery my fantasy of having a nice place for me and my family members. I am expecting to lose the money, but get some pleasure that somebody wins, and some good causes are supported. I know that I pay to make a daydream have a little more substance and hope, and the lotteries are cheap enough for me to enjoy my little dream. What does not do it for me is the rush of scratchcards, a finish to a race, the fall of a ball, the turn of a card, the whizz of a fruit machine. To me that kind of 'pleasure' is more likely to be stress. Anyway for that kind of personal validation or whatever I prefer a game of Chess.
I have the great good fortune of calling this lady a close personal friend, and if you knew her then you would know that a) she gives a big chunk of that away, b) she works like no other person I have ever known and c) she has the most astute business brain of any one I've ever met, or am ever likely to meet.
As an employee and a friend naturally you will defend her and to be fair she sounds like a good woman. Just because it’s a betting firm doesn’t mean she has to give those amounts away so fair play to her for that.
But at the same time she earns so much because people give her that money. I have a particular dislike for Bet365 for personal reasons and you can’t pretend she is some god when thousands out there ruin there lives while she pays herself several million.
That's not her fault though. She doesn't force people to bet, she doesn't force people to bet with money they can't afford nor does she force people to bet with her company.
If she and her company didn't exist i'd guess these people would find another company to bet with.
£48m more than she was paid in 2017 and in 2017 she earned £217m
Earned? No one earns that much. She's a bookie, they take money from idiots. Any other walk of life would call it stealing.
Never mentioned by the hectoring press nor the jealous chatters but on a salary package of £220M she'd have paid just shy of £99M in income tax plus £444k NI and the employer wears another £30M of NI on top. £130M to the treasury, in one year - how many lifetimes would all the snipes have to work to equal that? Perspective anybody?
I have the great good fortune of calling this lady a close personal friend, and if you knew her then you would know that a) she gives a big chunk of that away, b) she works like no other person I have ever known and c) she has the most astute business brain of any one I've ever met, or am ever likely to meet.
As an employee and a friend naturally you will defend her and to be fair she sounds like a good woman. Just because it’s a betting firm doesn’t mean she has to give those amounts away so fair play to her for that.
But at the same time she earns so much because people give her that money. I have a particular dislike for Bet365 for personal reasons and you can’t pretend she is some god when thousands out there ruin there lives while she pays herself several million.
That's not her fault though. She doesn't force people to bet, she doesn't force people to bet with money they can't afford nor does she force people to bet with her company.
If she and her company didn't exist i'd guess these people would find another company to bet with.
you can't get a bet with them though , they are a proper bucket shop in betting terms (it must be online where they make their dough) unless you back at shit odds (compared to betfair prices) or are a complete loser or even the type of loser they want !!
I have the great good fortune of calling this lady a close personal friend, and if you knew her then you would know that a) she gives a big chunk of that away, b) she works like no other person I have ever known and c) she has the most astute business brain of any one I've ever met, or am ever likely to meet.
As an employee and a friend naturally you will defend her and to be fair she sounds like a good woman. Just because it’s a betting firm doesn’t mean she has to give those amounts away so fair play to her for that.
But at the same time she earns so much because people give her that money. I have a particular dislike for Bet365 for personal reasons and you can’t pretend she is some god when thousands out there ruin there lives while she pays herself several million.
That's not her fault though. She doesn't force people to bet, she doesn't force people to bet with money they can't afford nor does she force people to bet with her company.
If she and her company didn't exist i'd guess these people would find another company to bet with.
I absolutely agree with all of that. However, betting companies do pry on the vulnerable. Any winners are quickly banned/restricted and the losers encouraged to lose more.
My point however is that is hard to praise a women and make out she is such a kind hearted person when a big chunk of her wealth comes from people losing more money than they can afford to. Of course it's not entirely her fault these people lose the money, but then if they didn't nobody would be discussing how much she gives to charity.
Fair play to her, 365 is my go to app when I fancy losing a score on an acca.
However I do think more has got to be done to regulate betting firms, some of the stories lately I heard on LBC are shocking, every day family men blowing the lot and then some because they’re uncontrollably hooked.
Comments
Surprised she only takes £265m - why stop there?
She gives to a number of charities - just one recent example being the full funding at a cost of £5m of an extension to a children's hospice in Stoke enabling 18+ year olds to remain in the safety and comforting environment of the hospice instead of being farmed out to council care homes. Add to that the funding for the ongoing revenue costs. No she didn't do it to deflect and say what a kind generous person she is - she did it because she can and to give back to the community. Another example of her generosity in both money and spirit is paying for one of our employees to go to America for a heart and lung transplant that wasn't available to him in the UK - at a total cost running into seven figures. It is profound regret that I will be going to his funeral on Monday.
Apart from my family, she is the person I most respect on this planet.
Some benefactors like to give it all away in their lifetimes (personal choice not necessarily in the beneficiaries’ best long term interest).
A real chance for her to leave a positive legacy amongst all the misery the industry creates.
FairPlay to her and her family’s generosity to good causes , long may it continue.
Here is a lady that has built up a company from almost nothing (believe her dad owned a Bookies before hand), has created god knows how many jobs, gives huge sums to charitable/worthy causes (the charity has had over 200m by the looks of it) and as Bob has highlighted there will be lots of other things she does that rightly don't make it into the public domain. She very much reminds me of my old chairman, he was of similar character, wealthy beyond my imagination but not in that league.
If there were more Denise Coates in this country it would be a much better place, she's clearly a very intelligent, kind and generous person. But some will knock her because she earns a bucket load of money, very sad. The only clear mistake she made was starting her business in Stoke and not Charlton
@Chippycafc you're right, judge a man by the company he keeps, as we all know, @bobmunro is clearly a top bloke.
I wouldn't bet on it though.
Have a few general misgivings on the growth in gambling but it’s also good to see British owned companies be successful.
Hope she looks after friends @bobmunro :-)
Every pound earned coming from someone unintentionally losing a quid.
Very good business sense and remarkable growth but very little to admire as it's an industry whose entire premise is to exploit the bad decisions of the public including a significant proportion who certainly can't afford to be doing it.
It's a scandal that gambling has become so central to our economy and you can't go more than 2 minutes without the brainwashing seductive advertising campaigns pummelling you from every angle on social and mainstream media.
It's a world away from having the odd flutter on the horses or punt on the odd match at local turf accountants and not very admirable whatsoever.
2017 profits = £504M
average PE of gaming stocks globally = 8x
Because it is online and growing faster, I bet it could get 10x earnings, easily
£5.04 billion company net worth
Denise ownership share = 50.1%
Net worth = £2.5 billion+, or $3.2B American.
This would make her, I believe, the richest "self made" (I use that term lightly) woman in the world. I had never heard of her until this post. Impressive.
But at the same time she earns so much because people give her that money. I have a particular dislike for Bet365 for personal reasons and you can’t pretend she is some god when thousands out there ruin there lives while she pays herself several million.
When most well-known top business people are utter scumbags like Phillip Green or greedy tax-dodgers like Branson, it's quite refreshing to see one buck the trend and give a lot back.
I am troubled by those who destroy their lives, and the lives of those around them by their gambling.
Apropos the notion above about unintentional losses I would say my losses are actually intentional!
By that I mean with Euromillions for example I am paying to 'legitimise' my fantasy of buying Charlton, or with the general lottery my fantasy of having a nice place for me and my family members.
I am expecting to lose the money, but get some pleasure that somebody wins, and some good causes are supported. I know that I pay to make a daydream have a little more substance and hope, and the lotteries are cheap enough for me to enjoy my little dream.
What does not do it for me is the rush of scratchcards, a finish to a race, the fall of a ball, the turn of a card, the whizz of a fruit machine. To me that kind of 'pleasure' is more likely to be stress.
Anyway for that kind of personal validation or whatever I prefer a game of Chess.
If she and her company didn't exist i'd guess these people would find another company to bet with.
My point however is that is hard to praise a women and make out she is such a kind hearted person when a big chunk of her wealth comes from people losing more money than they can afford to. Of course it's not entirely her fault these people lose the money, but then if they didn't nobody would be discussing how much she gives to charity.
Alcohol companies lure in piss heads
Tobacco companies entice smokers
Retail companies attract shopaholics
If people can’t control their urges with a pound note around a legitimate business then that’s their problem not the person selling the product.
However I do think more has got to be done to regulate betting firms, some of the stories lately I heard on LBC are shocking, every day family men blowing the lot and then some because they’re uncontrollably hooked.