How Bet365's Denise Coates Hit her Own Jackpot
ByRebecca Marston
Business press reporter, BBC News
Denise Coates, the billionaire employer of Bet365, added another ₤ 323m to her wealth this week after the company her family founded acquired another year of huge earnings.
She's been called the UK's most successful lady, with a fortune that Forbes publication puts in the region of ₤ 9.3 bn.
Most strikingly, she has made that mainly herself.
Bet365 is Stoke-on-Trent's biggest economic sector company, with more than 4,600 personnel. It uses its countless worldwide customers sports betting, poker, casino, video games and bingo. The firm had a ₤ 3bn turnover in the year to the end of March and a profit before tax of ₤ 791m.
Ms Coates' brother John is joint president and her father Peter is the company's chairman, however Denise Coates owns half the company and there's no doubt the success is largely hers.
LISTEN: Profile: Denise Coates
Bet365 manager sees pay increase to ₤ 265m
Serious gamblers tend to have a "system", an apparently foolproof approach that will keep on bringing rewards. So what's her "system"?
Go back to the 1990s and there aren't numerous who would have gambled on the small family-run chain of local betting stores growing to such a size.
A lot is down to her mathematical skill, which was exceptional from an early age. David Owen taught her at secondary school in the 1980s.
"She got whatever right, only asked essential questions and was angelically acted. She was clearly off the scale. If we were talking Mensa, she 'd remain in the leading 1%," he told the BBC.
'More girls'
She achieved a superior degree in econometrics and trained as an accountant within the household company, building even more on the knowledge of the small chain that she selected up while working part-time throughout high school.
ByRebecca Marston
Business press reporter, BBC News
Denise Coates, the billionaire employer of Bet365, added another ₤ 323m to her wealth this week after the company her family founded acquired another year of huge earnings.
She's been called the UK's most successful lady, with a fortune that Forbes publication puts in the region of ₤ 9.3 bn.
Most strikingly, she has made that mainly herself.
Bet365 is Stoke-on-Trent's biggest economic sector company, with more than 4,600 personnel. It uses its countless worldwide customers sports betting, poker, casino, video games and bingo. The firm had a ₤ 3bn turnover in the year to the end of March and a profit before tax of ₤ 791m.
Ms Coates' brother John is joint president and her father Peter is the company's chairman, however Denise Coates owns half the company and there's no doubt the success is largely hers.
LISTEN: Profile: Denise Coates
Bet365 manager sees pay increase to ₤ 265m
Serious gamblers tend to have a "system", an apparently foolproof approach that will keep on bringing rewards. So what's her "system"?
Go back to the 1990s and there aren't numerous who would have gambled on the small family-run chain of local betting stores growing to such a size.
A lot is down to her mathematical skill, which was exceptional from an early age. David Owen taught her at secondary school in the 1980s.
"She got whatever right, only asked essential questions and was angelically acted. She was clearly off the scale. If we were talking Mensa, she 'd remain in the leading 1%," he told the BBC.
'More girls'
She achieved a superior degree in econometrics and trained as an accountant within the household company, building even more on the knowledge of the small chain that she selected up while working part-time throughout high school.