The family members behind privately held online betting operator Bet365 have made their first appearance in the top-25 of the most recent Sunday Times Rich List.
The Times’ annual list of the UK’s richest 1,000 individuals showed the Coates family – father/founder Peter, daughter Denise and her brother John – leaping 20 spots to #24 last year with a combined net worth of around £3.8b, 60% higher than in 2014 and more than tripling their 2013 total.
Bet365 also earned the title of the highest ranking digital business on the Times list, while Denise Coates (pictured) was singled out as Britain’s “richest self-made woman.”
Despite the Coates’ meteoric rise, the top gambling-related chart position – and the top position overall – belonged to brothers David and Simon Reuben, whose co-ownership of the Arena Racing Company helped boost their net worth to £13.1b.
Other racing-associated luminaries loomed large on the 2015 list, including horse owner siblings Kirsten and John Raussing, who are worth £8.7b, while Earl Cadogan’s family’s packet was worth £5.7b.
Former PokerStars CEO Mark Scheinberg, who has spent the past couple years counting his share of the money earned from the Scheinberg family’s sale of their Rational Group holdings to Canada’s Amaya Gaming in 2014, saw his net worth rise £110m last year to £2.87b.
Playtech founder Teddy Sagi cracked the top 50 for the first time, scoring 44th place with a net worth of £2.5b, proving that little inconveniences like doing time for stock fraud needn’t represent the final nail in one’s career coffin.
Betfred’s bookmaking brothers Fred and Peter Done cracked the top-100 at #82 with a combined haul of £1.3b, having boosted 2014’s figure by an impressive £300m.
The recent merger of Irish betting operator Paddy Power with UK betting exchange Betfair helped many of the associated execs make the lower rungs of the Times list for the first time, including the CEO of the enlarged group Breon Corcoran (£50m), former Paddy boss Patrick Kennedy (£55m) and co-founder Stewart Kenny (£53m).
All told, the Times estimated that the UK’s wealthiest gambling industry figures saw their collective net worth improve nearly £3b last year, pushing their total holdings over £19b. For what it’s worth – and that’s a lot – the richest gambling bosses easily eclipsed their hedge fund counterparts on the 2015 list, who managed only a combined fortune of £13b.
