EGaming Review magazine has ranked bet365 the number one Internet gaming company in 2010, 2011 and 2012 as part of its annual Power 50 list of the top 50 most influential Internet gaming companies. The bet365.fr website went live on 26 May 2026, after the company secured a triple licence from the French gambling regulator Autorit\u00e9 nationale des jeux (ANJ), covering sports betting, horse race betting and online poker. In the summer of 2019, the largest UK bookmakers and online casino operators William Hill, GVC Holdings, Flutter Entertainment, Stars Group and bet365 entered into an agreement to transfer funds to combat gambling addiction. Denise developed a sports betting platform and trading team to launch the business online in March 2001. In January 2019, bet365 ranked second on The Sunday Times list of the UK’s top taxpayers, with the Coates family (Denise, John and Peter) paying an estimated total tax of \u00a3156 million, of which \u00a399 million was paid by Denise alone. In 2018, her pay rose to \u00a3265 million as the company reported profits up 31% to \u00a3660 million, prompting criticism from problem gambling charity groups.<\/p>\n
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Denise Coates, founder and joint CEO of bet365, received a CBE in the 2012 Queen’s new year honours list for services to the community and business. The platform joined the official list of operators approved by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance in February 2025, following the approval of the sports betting regulatory framework in the country. Her brother John, co-chief executive, runs the business alongside her, with their father Peter serving as chairman.<\/p>\n
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Their business operations are conducted from its headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, alongside further offices in Manchester, Gibraltar, Malta, United States, Bulgaria, Brazil, Colombia and Australia. It was founded by Denise Coates, who remains the majority shareholder and joint-chief executive, alongside her brother John Coates. The company sponsors the shirt and stadium of EFL Championship football club Stoke City F.C., a corporate affiliate. In August 2024, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement ordered that the company was required to pay more than $519,000 to customers it had shorted on payments. The company refused a payout of \u00a354,000 to a customer in England in 2016, a case which was still ongoing in 2017.<\/p>\n
In Brazil, the company established legal representation through a subsidiary, HS do Brasil Ltda. Bet365’s reported figures for the 2020 financial year showed revenues of \u00a32.8 billion and a profit of \u00a3470 million before tax. The initiative was welcomed by a harm reduction group, but also received criticism for its perceived inadequacy; one MP described it as “a bribe to appease campaigners and the UK government”. In April 2016, the company became the new title sponsors for the club’s stadium for the next six seasons, replacing fellow local enterprise the Britannia Building Society. Bet365 chairman Peter Coates was also the chairman at Stoke City and in May 2012 bet365 signed a three-year contract with the club to become shirt sponsors.<\/p>\n
Bet365 sold its betting shop chain in 2005 for \u00a340 million to Coral and paid off its loan to RBS. The business borrowed \u00a315 million from Royal Bank of Scotland against the family’s betting shop estate which had been started by Peter Coates in 1974 and had been run by Denise Coates as managing director from 1995.<\/p>\n