Online casino owner’s fortune almost doubles

The latest UK Sunday Times Rich List has revealed that father and daughter Peter and Denise Coates, owners of the Bet365 online casino and sports betting group, have almost doubled the family fortune, growing it GBP 1.15 billion to GBP 2.35 billion – an increase of 96 percent.

The duo climbed from 78th on the list of the UK’s wealthiest to 44th this year after their online gambling group posted an 81.5 percent surge in profits to GBP 320.9 million in July 2014.

But they are not the wealthiest gambling providers on this year’s list – former Rational Group-Pokerstars owner Mark Scheinberg is listed at GBP 2.76 billion, and Betdaq founder Dermot Desmond is worth GBP 1.47 billion.

Fred and Peter Done of Betfred have made the billionaire list this year, followed by BetVictor owner Michael Tabor on GBP 600 million, David Power of Paddy Power with GBP 236 million, and Betfair founders Ed Wray and Andrew Black on GBP 222 million and GBP 135 million respectively.

From a more general perspective, this year the top 1,000 rich folks list (you’ll need a cool GBP 100 million fortune just to get on to it) have a combined wealth of over GBP 547 billion… more than double what it was a decade ago despite the world’s trials and tribulations.

There are 117 billionaires this year – up from 104 last year, and King of the Castle is London-based Ukrainian businessman Len Blavatnik, whose empire includes the Warner Music Group, who has a fortune estimated at  GBP 13.17 billion… up by three billion on last year.

Sri and Gopi Hinduja placed second, despite their fortune rising by GBP 1.1 billion to GBP 13 billion.

Third are Galen and George Weston and family, who run a retail empire that includes Selfridges and Primark; their fortune grew GBP 3.7 billion to GBP 11 billion.

Past list leader Lakshmi Mittal, whose wealth lies in steel, lost GBP 1.05 billion over the year to end up lower down the the list with GBP 9.2 billion, whilst Russian oligarch and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abromovich found himself GBP 1.23 billion poorer on GBP 7.29 billion.

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