ByRebecca Marston
Business press reporter, BBC News

Denise Coates, the billionaire employer of Bet365, added another ₤ 323m to her wealth this promotion code week after the business her family founded racked up another year of big profits.

She's been called the UK's most effective lady, with a fortune that Forbes publication puts in the area of ₤ 9.3 bn.

Most strikingly, she has made that mostly herself.

Bet365 is Stoke-on-Trent's largest economic sector employer, with more than 4,600 personnel. It offers its countless worldwide consumers sports wagering, poker, gambling establishment, games and bingo. The company had a ₤ 3bn turnover in the year to the end of March and an earnings before tax of ₤ 791m.

Ms Coates' brother John is joint president and her daddy Peter is the company's chairman, but Denise Coates owns half the yohaig code company and there's no doubt the success is mostly hers.

LISTEN: Profile: Denise Coates

Bet365 manager sees pay rise to ₤ 265m

Serious bettors tend to have a "system", a supposedly foolproof approach that will continue bringing rewards. So what's her "system"?

Go back to the 1990s and there aren't lots of who would have gambled on the yohaig code little family-run chain of regional wagering shops growing to such a size.

A lot is down to her mathematical talent, which was amazing from an early age. David Owen taught her at secondary school in the 1980s.

"She got everything right, just asked significant questions and was angelically behaved. She was clearly off the scale. If we were talking Mensa, she 'd remain in the leading 1%," he told the BBC.

'More women'

She attained a first-class degree in econometrics and trained as an accountant within the family firm, developing further on the understanding of the yohaig code small chain that she got while working part-time during high school.

In addition to a really eager eye for figures - the heart of any effective bookie - she is also a moderniser.

One of her coworkers, Debbie Tatton, informed the BBC: "When Denise came, she desired a closer relationship in between the staff and the clients. We ended up being a lot more professional, a lot more customer-focused. A great deal of younger individuals started coming in, as well as a lot more girls."

In 2000, Ms Coates upped the stakes and encouraged the family to mortgage the business to enable them to develop new software application.

Her brother says she became fixated on the capacity for online gaming and became a pioneer in that company.

Setting up head office in a momentary building in a parking area, Ms Coates called it the supreme gamble, buying the domain Bet365.com so that she might drive business because instructions.

'Innate understanding'

"She's extremely smart and really determined," says Warwick Bartlett, from worldwide wagering and gaming experts GBGC.

"She is likewise efficient in looking at the yohaig code big picture. Betfair was the innovator in in-play wagering, but she was basically the first to harness mobile technology, identifying that gamblers anywhere would have the ability to bank on sporting events."

A big 70% of income now comes through banking on tablets and phones.

She is assisted, Mr Bartlett says, by the reality that she, uniquely, truly understands the industry. "The Coates household are third-generation bookmakers. They have actually learned business from parents and grandparents.

"She has an innate knowledge of what the gambler is trying to find. A great deal of the business these days have managers that may have come from [other sectors] They are expert supervisors who attempt to apply their understanding gained from offering beans or margarines."

Ad debate

Mr Bartlett states close understanding of another company has actually assisted with the in-play football income: Bet365 owns regional club Stoke City.

"Owning a football club gave them an insight into the method the Premier League worked. Stoke City, not so successful itself, has actually played groups that really are," he says.

"On top of the contact with the specialists they gain from protection through the sponsorship of the team. Bet365 has fantastic exposure every time Stoke are included."

Ms Coates' father is chairman of Stoke and has a higher public profile than she does.

But the name best associated with Bet365 is, obviously, Ray Winstone, whose gravelly tones utilized to advise punters to "bet in play - NOW!" before the ads were pulled.

Again, Warwick Bartlett states, Ms Coates got it right. "Using Ray confirms my point about 365, they know their consumers. He's a middle-aged guy and a bit of a geezer.

"Cleverly, Bet365 use similar types to appeal to their consumers in other markets. In Australia, it's Samuel L Jackson - he encounters in the advert as a very cool guy."

Bet365 continues to keep one action ahead. It's moving into the US as the market there opens.

But while Denise Coates' company brain believes worldwide, she herself is likely to remain rooted in Stoke.

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