Denise Coates, British founder and co-CEO of gambling company Bet365, earned a salary of $281 million dollars last year, along with at least half of the company’s $127 million dollars in stock dividends.
While some critics in the UK call this type of salary “outrageous” it’s yet another demonstration of a personal success story, where extraordinary vision, hard work, and a dash of luck meet.
Bet365 launched in 2001, as an extension of Coates father’s bookmaking business, whom she soon surpassed along those of established British competitors, William Hill, Ladbrokes, and Coral.
But it all started with a domain name, Bet365.com, that was up for sale on eBay in 2000. Denise Coates reportedly paid the sum of $25,000 dollars to the domain’s seller, who had registered it in 1999.
Not much is known about the seller of the domain name Bet365.com and there are no Archive.org records of the web site prior to the launch of Denise Coates’ venture in 2001.
Judging from the success of Bet365.com one thing is clear: It all starts with the right domain name.
