This is a screenshot from 2003 – now out of date, for illustration purposes only<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWe have already covered how the start up capital to finance the development and launch of Bet365 was raised \u2013 it helps to have a father with millions in the bank, eh Denise? \u2013 but there is a lot more to the Bet365 story than an act of benevolence.<\/p>\n
In truth, we have been a little unfair to Denise Coates here. Yes, raising the capital wasn\u2019t difficult, but the work she put in before starting the company as well as afterwards was quite something \u2013 and it all started in a portacabin office in a car park in Stoke.<\/p>\n
She gained a degree in econometrics and also put in plenty of time working as a cashier in one of her father\u2019s Provincial Racing betting shops, which, incidentally, he considered to be a side business to his main occupation running a catering company.<\/p>\n
This allowed Denise (and her brother, John) to handle much of the running of Provincial Racing where Denise eventually became the operating manager and was responsible for their online development. The more she looked into the world of online betting the more convinced she became that it was the future.<\/p>\n
She actually bought the domain name, Bet365.com from ebay of all places, costing \u00a310,000 (this was just before the dot-com bubble burst), and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n
As for the future, the company have invested in a purpose built office in Malta which hints that they plan to run a lot more of their operation from that location going forward, but it is unlikely that they will ever leave their beloved Stoke where they are headquartered.<\/p>\n
Peter Coates is the majority shareholder in the local football team, Stoke City, and the family have always been very loyal towards their home town and the locals who work for them, even guaranteeing their jobs\/pay during the 2020 pandemic.<\/p>\n
In terms of business, it is an interesting time for Bet365, because their growth has slowed dramatically. The business is still a solid one, offering a quality service to it’s customers, but their competition have wised up, and in many new markets there are ‘local hero’ type businesses who are beginning to match what Bet365 can offer, and they are taking market share.<\/p>\n
Having never really run an acquisition led business model before, this might be something they need to consider going forward, in order to endear themselves to customers in other countries, where the name Bet365 doesn’t mean what it does here.<\/p>\n
Tax and Economic Contributions<\/h2>\n
When you earn as much as Bet365 do your tax bill is substantial. The company paid over \u00a3181 million back in 2009, although the 2022 tax figure is much smaller at around \u00a317 million due to a year of reduced profits – down around 90% on 2021 due to huge spending on customer acquisition in new markets.<\/p>\n
Stoke City FC is also a loss making business that contributes to Bet365 Group’s annual figures. The club is run for love rather than profit, and ultimately the betting brand takes the hit.<\/p>\n
It’s a different story with the company’s owners though. Denise Coates herself was officially the UK\u2019s biggest tax payer for 3 years in a row between 2019-2021. Her tax bill in 2022 was\u00a0 \u00a3460.2 million, making her the UK’s 2nd highest tax payer for the year.<\/p>\n
It would be easy for the company to reduce this sort of expenditure by basing themselves off shore as almost all other big gambling companies do, but they seem keen to pay their fair share despite the damage to their wallets, even donating to the Labour party who are in favour of tax hikes on the rich.<\/p>\n
The Coates\u2019 loyalty to Stoke and the North in general has also meant that a lot of good quality jobs have been created in areas where they otherwise might not have been. In Stoke alone they employ around 1,900 people, making them the biggest employer in the area, but their staff rota is 7,000+ strong all in all, with many of those employees working in nearby Manchester. The wage bill at Bet365 was over \u00a3606 million in 2022, with much of that going to UK based employees who all pay tax here, and then spend their money here, plus pension contributions etc.<\/p>\n
Not forgetting all of the trade that these jobs bring to their localities, as well as money paid out for office space, supplies, and services.<\/p>\n
The Coates family also run a charitable foundation giving out grants to university students for example, among many other things. In 2022 \u00a3105.7 million was given to good causes across the arts, education, health and wellbeing, community development and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies\/4490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/companies"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}