Recession or no recession, people are still ready to spend money on gambling. So not surprisingly, Peter Coates’ online gaming company Bet365 is posting big profits and investing for the future.
Profits in the year to March 2012 passed the £100 million figure, triggering a £40 million dividend for Mr Coates and his family.
Gambling activity soared by 47 per cent, resulting in pre-tax profits £116.5 million, up from £98.7 million, with turnover reaching £721.8 million from £501.4 million.
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A staggering £12.4 billion was poured into Bet365 in wagers compared with £8.5 billion the previous year.
Bet365 is now bigger than William Hill and Ladbrokes online businesses put together, with strong revenues. As well as traditional betting, its poker and bingo revenues have increased by more than a quarter.
Things are going well for 74 year-old Mr Coates. Stoke City – of which he is chairman – is holding its own mid-table in the Premier League after winning promotion in 2008. Manager Tony Pulis is in his ninth year at the club and unlike many Premiership managers his future seems cemented. His robust brand of football goes down well with the fans.
It’s just as well that Mr Coates’ financial fortune doesn’t rest on the performance of his beloved football club. Like most Premier League teams it is losing money – around £5.6 million on sales of £66.8 million in the latest figures - and even he himself conceded it was "not a sensible investment."
But his Bet365 online business most certainly is a sensible investment, with revenue continuing an upward trend.
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Mr Coates and his daughter Denise are joint chief executives of the business, and they believe in making gambling easy for punters. On Bet365 you can bet anytime from anywhere in the world in any language.
The online gaming company is the 海角视频’s seventh largest private company and the company is now worth at least £750 million.
Bet365 has more than six million customers in 200 countries. It has more than 1,700 employees with a wage bill of £107 million.
Mr Coates loves Stoke City FC so much he has bought the Britannia Stadium-based club not once, but twice.
The miner’s son from Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent – the youngest of 14 children – became the majority shareholder of Stoke City FC in 1989 and was chairman until 1997. Two years later he sold his shares for £3.5 million to a consortium of Icelandic businessmen. In May 2006 his company – Kidsgrove Road – bought it back again, paying the Icelanders £1.7 million, with a further £3.3 million to cancel out debt.
The long-time Labour Party donor founded Stadia Catering in 1968 specifically to supply catering at football clubs. Within a few years he was supplying nearly every club in the 海角视频. Stadia was renamed Lindley Catering and was sold for £17 million.
In 1974 he bought three betting shops – the start of a chain which was to become Provincial Racing, owning 49 shops across the country. Then, in 2000, his daughter Denise came up with the idea of online betting.
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He took up her idea and Bet365 was born. She now owns half the company, while his son John owns 25 per cent. The siblings are responsible for Bet365’s day-to-day running.
In July 2005 Mr Coates sold his betting shops for £40 million to concentrate on the online business.