Coates family leads egaming rich list with £925m fortune
Bet365 founders' assets grow £125m year-on-year, Betfred founders up £150m
Peter, Denise and John Coates – the family behind Power 50 operator bet365 – remain the richest egaming figures for the third consecutive year with a combined fortune of £925m.
The Coates family are the only online gambling figures on the top 100 of the Sunday Times‘ annual Rich List, dropping one place to 93rd nationwide despite their worth increasing by 15.6% year-on-year. According to the newspaper, bet365 itself is worth £800m with the remaining £125m attributed to “other assets” held by the Coates family.
They are among 11 gambling-related individuals [or groups of individuals] in the top 1000 richest people in the United Kingdom. Three further entries on the list have seen their fortunes grow in the last 12 months, including Betfair investor Richard Koch, one of two shareholders sounded out by CVC Partners regarding the £900m+ bid which the operator turned down this morning.
Koch is worth £140m – up £53m on 2012’s figure – with the rise seeing him climb more than 250 places on the Rich List to 572nd. Also on the up are Fred and Peter Done, with the Betfred founders on the fringes of the top 100 after seeing their combines fortune rise £150m year-on-year to £850m. eGaming Review recently revealed that Fred Done has invested in Active Win Media, a Manchester-based digital marketing agency led by The Nation Traffic veteran Warren Jacobs.
Gamesys’ managing director Noel Hayden has also seen his fortune grow year-on-year, with his 30.1% stake in the operator – the first to launch real-money gambling on Facebook in December – accounting for £105m of his £120m fortune and seeing him cross the £100m threshold for the first time.
There is one new entry from the gambling space, with Hippodrome Casino owners Jimmy and Simon Thomas entering in 713th spot with a combined fortune of £110m. The pair relaunched the venue in London’s West End last year before selling an undisclosed minority stake to Isle of Man-based operator PokerStars.
The Hippodrome’s egaming offering – including a Microgaming and Betway-backed online casino – went live in February this year, while The Sunday Times suggests the PokerStars deal “Valu[es] the Hippodrome at about £100m”.
The remaining figures on the list from within the egaming sector are BetVictor shareholder Michael Tabor and chairman Victor Chandler, Betfair founders Ed Wray and Andrew Black, and former PartyGaming figures Ruth Parasol, Russ DeLeon and Vikrant Bhargava.