Denise Coates, founder and co-CEO of gambling firm Bet365, took home a pay packet worth £469 million in the 12 months leading up to March 2020.
Her salary for the period was £421 million while she was also paid £48 million in dividends. It’s believed to have set a new record as the largest corporate payment package in the UK.
Coates’ salary increased by over 50% on her previous year’s salary of $277 million.
The company told the BBC that Coates’ salary was “appropriate and fair” despite the company’s profits dropping by 74% in the following year.
The record-breaking salary saw Ms. Coates become the UK’s largest taxpayer for the second year in a row according to the Sunday Times Tax List which listed the Coates’ family’s total tax liability as £573 million for 2020.
After the news of Coates’ salary was made public, campaign group the High Pay Centre was quoted as saying that it was “appallingly inefficient for single individuals to hoard wealth in this way”.
Image credit: Carine06 / CC BY-SA 2.0
Olivia has worked as an editor and writer for major brands across multiple niches. She now focuses on the iGaming and sports betting industries.