Gambling executive’s $281 million salary deemed not ‘sensible or proportionate’

The founder and boss of gambling company Bet365 earned a salary of around $281 million (£221 million) in the last financial year – ending March 26, 2023. The figure was described as not “sensible or proportionate” by one campaign group.

The founder and boss of gambling company Bet365 earned a salary of around $281 million (£221 million) in the last financial year – ending March 26, 2023. The figure was described as not “sensible or proportionate” by one campaign group. Denise Coates, the joint-chief executive and majority shareholder of Bet365, also earned at least 50% of the company’s $127 million (£100 million) in dividends on top of her $281 million salary, company accounts published on Sunday show. Her base salary is an increase of about $10 million compared to last year, even as Bet365 made pre-tax losses of around $77 million (£60.2 million). The company accounts attribute the losses to “a significant increase in costs associated with entering into new markets.” Bet365 did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. The size of Coates’ salary – which makes her Britain’s highest-paid women and one of the highest-paid chief executives in the world, according to the BBC – has drawn criticism, particularly in light of the UK’s cost-of-living crisis. “People deserve to be rewarded for innovation and success but there’s a question of what’s sensible and proportionate,” Luke Hildyard, executive director of the High Pay Centre, said in a statement sent to CNN on Monday.