Bet365 Founder Wins Queen’s New Years Honor

Denise Coates, the founder of online gambling giant bet365, was honoured this week as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's New Year Honours list for her services to business and to the community.

An Incredible Honor

Coates, who has a controlling stake in the operator of online betting and casino services, called the announcement "an incredible honor" and said it would not have been possible without the fantastic support and commitment of everybody at bet365.

It is worth recalling that Coates founded the firm from the small city of Stoke in the year 2000. Since then it has grown into one of the biggest internet gambling companies in the world, with more than six million customers in 2000 countries, sites that operate in 17 different languages, and more than 1,700 employees.

Expansion Plans

Recently Coates gave a lengthy interview to an online gambling magazine, in which she said bet365 had enjoyed a good financial year thanks to the launch of new products such as a sports betting site with in-play features, and added that the company would expand to emerging markets.

Coates said preparations were underway for new licenses in Australia, Spain and Denmark, and hinted that bet365 was following developments in the United States - where the possible legalization of internet gambling would open up a whole new race for competing companies.