Coates And Done Family
In a list of the UK’s 100 biggest taxpayers, published annually by The Times since 2019, owners of two major gambling operators appeared in the top three. The owners of Betfred and Bet365 were among the three highest taxpayers in the UK, paying over £250 million each.
While an individual outside the gambling industry took the top spot, Fred and Peter Done, the Betfred owners, took second place. Peter Coats and his children Denise and John, the owners of Stoke-on-Trent-based bet365, were in third position.
According to the list published by The Times, the Coates family paid £265 million in taxes last year. While Fred and Peter Done paid £273 million, moving them up to the second spot from fourth in the 2024 list when they paid £204.6 million. The Coates family have stayed in the same position as the previous list.
Strong Financial Years
The list was published a few weeks after Bet365 released a financial report that showed marked growth across several metrics but decreased pay for CEO Denise Coates. The chief saw her pay drop by 57.1% to £94.7 million. This lower remuneration had no effect on Coates becoming the highest-paid chief executive in Britain for the fourth year in a row.
The report, which included information on the financial year ending March 2024, showed the company’s turnover reached £3.72bn, up 9% from the previous year. Sports betting and gambling accounted for most of this at £3.7 billion, while £23.8m came from football clubs and facilities.
Betfred’s most recent financial report came in July 2024, reporting on results from 2023. It showed a 25.6% increase in turnover but a 98.7% decrease in operating profit.
Top Of The List
Someone outside the gambling industry filled the top spot on the tax list, Chris Hohn, who paid £339.5 million in taxes. Mr Hohn founded The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI), a hedge fund management firm based in London. The holding company, TCI Fund Management Limited, is based in the Cayman Islands.
The company was named after the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), which the hedge fund used to donate its profits when it was launched in 2003. This stopped in 2012 when the fund and the foundation were separated. Ten years later, in January 2022, it was described as the world’s best-performing hedge fund.
