ByRebecca Marston
Business reporter, BBC News

Denise Coates, the billionaire boss of Bet365, added another ₤ 323m to her wealth today after the business her family founded racked up another year of huge profits.

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

Most noticeably, she has made that mostly herself.

Bet365 is Stoke-on-Trent's biggest personal sector employer, with more than 4,600 staff. It offers its millions of worldwide consumers sports wagering, poker, casino, video games and bingo. The company had a ₤ 3bn turnover in the year to the yohaig code end of March and a revenue before tax of ₤ 791m.

Ms Coates' bro John is joint chief and her father Peter is the firm's chairman, however Denise Coates owns half the company and there's no doubt the success is largely hers.

LISTEN: Profile: Denise Coates

Bet365 manager sees pay rise to ₤ 265m

Serious gamblers tend to have a "system", a supposedly sure-fire method that will keep bringing rewards. So what's her "system"?

Go back to the 1990s and there aren't many who would have bet on the little family-run chain of local wagering shops growing to such a size.

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

"She got everything right, only asked relevant concerns 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 girls'

She attained a top-notch degree in econometrics and trained as an accounting professional within the family company, building further on the understanding of the small chain that she got while working part-time throughout high school.

Along with an extremely eager eye for figures - the heart of any successful bookmaker - she is likewise a moderniser.

Among her coworkers, Debbie Tatton, told the BBC: "When Denise came, she wanted a better relationship between the yohaig code staff and the yohaig code consumers. We became a lot more expert, a lot more customer-focused. A great deal of younger individuals began can be found in, in addition to a lot more ladies."

In 2000, Ms Coates upped the stakes and encouraged the household to mortgage the business to permit them to develop brand-new software.

Her bro states she became fixated on the capacity for online gambling and ended up being a pioneer in that organization.

Establishing head office in a momentary structure in a parking lot, Ms Coates called it the ultimate gamble, purchasing the domain name Bet365.com so that she could drive business in that instructions.

'Innate understanding'

"She's highly intelligent and extremely identified," says Warwick Bartlett, from global wagering and gaming experts GBGC.

"She is likewise capable of looking at the big image. Betfair was the innovator in in-play betting, but she was basically the first to harness mobile technology, acknowledging that gamblers anywhere would have the yohaig code 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, distinctively, actually understands the market. "The Coates household are third-generation bookmakers. They have found out the organization from moms and dads and grandparents.

"She has an innate knowledge of what the bettor is looking for. A great deal of the business these days have managers that might have originated from [other sectors] They are expert supervisors who attempt to use their understanding gained from offering beans or margarines."

Ad controversy

Mr Bartlett says close understanding of another business has aided with the in-play football income: Bet365 owns local club Stoke City.

"Owning a football club offered them an insight into the way the Premier League worked. Stoke City, not so effective itself, has played teams that truly are," he states.

"On top of the contact with the experts they benefit from protection through the sponsorship of the group. Bet365 has terrific direct exposure every time Stoke are included."

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

But the name best related to Bet365 is, of course, Ray Winstone, whose gravelly tones utilized to advise punters to "wager in play - NOW!" before the ads were pulled.

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

"Cleverly, Bet365 usage comparable types to attract their clients in other markets. In Australia, it's Samuel L Jackson - he discovers in the advert as an extremely cool guy."

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

But while Denise Coates' organization brain thinks global, she herself is likely to remain rooted in Stoke.

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