December 23, 2025
Bet365 founder and joint chief executive Denise Coates has taken home at least £280 million in salary and dividends for the latest financial year, even as the privately held online gambling giant reported a sharp drop in profits. The figure, revealed in newly filed company accounts, reignites a long-running debate about executive pay in founder-controlled businesses—while also spotlighting how expensive Bet365’s global repositioning has become as it pushes deeper into regulated markets such as the United States and retreats from more legally fraught territories like China. [1]
Multiple outlets reporting on the same set of filings put Coates’s 2025 payout in the £260m–£287m range depending on how dividends are counted, but the central story is consistent: revenue rose, profits fell, and Coates’s personal take increased compared with the previous year. [2]
How much did Denise Coates earn from bet365 in 2025?
According to the accounts highlighted on Tuesday, Coates received a £104 million salary. As Bet365’s majority shareholder, she was also entitled to at least half of the group’s dividend payout, lifting her total earnings to at least £280 million for the year to March 2025. [3]
Why do some headlines cite a lower number—around £260 million—for the same year? One explanation is dividend composition:
- Financial reporting noted £313.6 million in cash dividends to family shareholders, which—combined with a £104m salary and “at least half” entitlement—produces the widely quoted £260.8m minimum. [4]
- The accounts also referenced a wider £353.6 million dividend figure, with £40 million linked to a distribution tied to the demerger of Stoke City FC from the group. Including this distribution is what pushes the “at least” total toward £280m+. [5]
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Coates was paid roughly £287 million (about $388 million) in 2025—suggesting a slightly broader calculation or rounding approach than some UK reports. [6]
What is not in dispute is the year-on-year direction. Coates’s minimum payout rose markedly from the prior year’s level (reported around £150 million), while still below her record payday earlier in the decade. [7]
Bet365 profits fell sharply even as revenue climbed
The filings show a business growing at the top line but absorbing significantly higher costs.
Bet365 reported turnover of roughly £4.0 billion for the year, up from about £3.7 billion the previous year. But pre-tax profit dropped steeply—reported around £349 million by one account and £338.5 million by another—down from the prior year’s £627 million level, a decline of roughly 43%. [8]
The reason, according to reporting based on the filings, was not a single catastrophic issue but the compounding cost of a strategic shift:
- Bet365 incurred an estimated £325 million increase in expenses as it reshaped its “global footprint,” including investment in expansion and compliance-heavy markets. [9]
- The company also disclosed one-off restructuring and reorganisation costs of £59 million tied to its exit from “certain markets.” [10]
In other words, Bet365 appears to be spending heavily to keep growing—while adjusting its risk profile in ways that can depress profit in the short term.
The US push: regulated growth, higher costs, and a new competitive reality
Bet365’s pivot toward regulated markets is most visible in the United States, where the company has been expanding state by state.
Reporting based on the filings said Bet365 entered five new US states during the year and now offers licensed sports betting in 16 states. [11]
That scale matters, because the modern US market is structurally expensive:
- Operators must navigate separate state licensing regimes, compliance requirements, integrity monitoring, and—often—heavy promotional spending to acquire customers.
- They face fierce competition from well-funded rivals, many of them publicly listed, that can use equity markets to finance aggressive marketing and product development.
Bet365’s brand is global, but US growth is not a copy‑and‑paste exercise. The economics are different, and the same accounts that show rising turnover also illustrate how expansion costs can compress profits during buildout.
Why exiting China matters—and why it could reshape bet365’s future
Bet365’s withdrawal from China is one of the most consequential strategic decisions in its recent history, because it touches on legality, reputation, and access to tightly regulated markets like the US.
The company expanded its presence in the US and South America while giving up its “sometimes controversial presence” in China, where online betting is illegal. Reporting said Bet365 did not cease taking bets in China until the end of March, implying some exit costs may fall into the subsequent financial year. [12]
Analysts had previously believed China’s “grey market” business was a meaningful contributor to Bet365’s revenue, potentially ranking behind only the UK as a source of income—making the exit a material strategic sacrifice if true. [13]
The broader implication is that Bet365 may be choosing a cleaner compliance posture to avoid jeopardising its ambitions in jurisdictions with strong enforcement—especially the United States, where licensing scrutiny can be intense and reputational risk is high. Some industry observers view the China retreat as a prerequisite for operating comfortably in the US at scale. [14]
Stoke City demerger and family structure: why it keeps showing up in the accounts
Bet365’s ownership and governance are unusually intertwined with the Coates family, and the filings again reflected that complexity.
During the year, Bet365 waived loans to Stoke City FC, which had been demerged from the group and is now under the control of Denise Coates’s brother, John Coates. [15]
The demerger also appears linked to dividend mechanics, with reporting indicating £40 million of a broader distribution related to the separation. [16]
This matters for readers trying to understand the headline payout number: the “£260m vs £280m” discrepancy is, in part, a reminder that family-owned private businesses can have distributions and restructurings that look different from a standard public-company pay package.
Sale or IPO rumours: what today’s filings did—and didn’t—confirm
Bet365 has repeatedly attracted market speculation about a blockbuster sale or listing, and today’s reporting revived that theme.
Several reports referenced earlier talk of a possible transaction that could value Bet365 around £9 billion, but coverage of the latest accounts said the filings made no direct mention of any sale process. [17]
Still, two factors keep feeding the narrative:
- Strategic repositioning: Exiting China and emphasising regulated markets can make a business more palatable to potential buyers, public investors, and regulators. [18]
- Profit volatility during expansion: A profit slump during a heavy investment cycle can prompt owners to weigh whether scaling further is best done privately—or with external capital.
Nothing in the public reporting confirms a deal is imminent. But in a global gambling industry where consolidation and cross-border licensing are increasingly central, the idea that Bet365 could eventually pursue a sale or listing remains one of the most closely watched possibilities.
The looming UK gambling tax hikes that could hit margins
Another reason the latest payout and profit figures land with extra force: the UK is moving toward significantly higher gambling duties, raising questions about medium-term profitability for operators with large British customer bases.
Official UK government publications outline major changes, including:
- Remote Gaming Duty rising from 21% to 40% from 1 April 2026
- Bingo Duty being abolished from 1 April 2026
- A new 25% remote betting duty within General Betting Duty from 1 April 2027 (with some exclusions such as UK horseracing remaining treated differently) [19]
Because Remote Gaming Duty applies to online casino-style products, the duty change could be particularly significant for companies with meaningful digital casino exposure—even if sports betting remains a major growth narrative.
For Bet365, the tax story adds another layer to today’s accounts: a business already absorbing the high costs of regulated expansion may soon face a steeper tax take in its home market, potentially encouraging either higher prices for consumers (worse odds and promos), more investment abroad, or operational efficiencies.
Executive pay, tax, and philanthropy: the debate reignites
Coates’s pay has long drawn scrutiny because the numbers are so large by UK standards. But the latest reporting also emphasised two counterpoints often made by supporters:
- Bet365 is described as among the UK’s largest taxpayers, with reporting based on the accounts stating contributions of £481.5 million to the Treasury in 2025, including tax on dividends. [20]
- The company also made substantial charitable donations—reported around £130 million in one account and £137.8 million in another—much of it via the Denise Coates Foundation. [21]
Critics, however, question whether philanthropy should soften the optics of executive payouts, particularly in an industry linked to gambling harm. The Guardian also pointed to earlier reporting on the potential tax advantages associated with the company’s donations to the foundation. [22]
The result is a familiar tension—made sharper by today’s filings: extraordinary wealth creation in a founder-led “tech-enabled” gambling business on one side, and ongoing societal and political pressure around gambling’s costs on the other.
What to watch next for bet365 in 2026
With the latest accounts now public, several near-term questions stand out:
- Can profits rebound once the current investment cycle stabilises? The revenue growth suggests demand is there, but cost control will matter. [23]
- How quickly can Bet365 expand in the US without burning margin? The state-by-state rollout is progressing, but the competitive spend environment remains intense. [24]
- What is the long-term impact of exiting China? If China was a major revenue driver, the company may need faster growth elsewhere to offset the loss. [25]
- How will UK duty reform reshape the domestic market from April 2026 onward? A near-doubling of Remote Gaming Duty is a structural shift, not a temporary headwind. [26]
- Will a sale or IPO move from rumour to reality? Nothing in the filings confirms it—but strategic choices like regulated expansion and the China exit will keep the question alive. [27]
For now, today’s story is a snapshot of a modern gambling powerhouse in transition: Bet365 is getting bigger, spending more, earning less in profit—yet still generating enough cash to fund one of the most eye-catching executive payouts in Britain.
References
1. www.theguardian.com, 2. www.theguardian.com, 3. www.theguardian.com, 4. www.ft.com, 5. www.ft.com, 6. www.bloomberg.com, 7. www.theguardian.com, 8. www.theguardian.com, 9. www.theguardian.com, 10. www.theguardian.com, 11. www.theguardian.com, 12. www.theguardian.com, 13. www.ft.com, 14. www.theguardian.com, 15. www.theguardian.com, 16. www.ft.com, 17. www.theguardian.com, 18. www.theguardian.com, 19. www.gov.uk, 20. www.ft.com, 21. www.theguardian.com, 22. www.theguardian.com, 23. www.theguardian.com, 24. www.theguardian.com, 25. www.ft.com, 26. www.gov.uk, 27. www.theguardian.com
