British billionaire businesswoman Denise Coates is one of the wealthiest people in the world, but most have never even heard her name. Dubbed “the quiet queen of online betting,” she is the founder, majority shareholder, and joint chief executive of online gambling company Bet365.

Despite being a titan in the industry with an annual salary greater than Elon Musk’s, Coates prefers to avoid the limelight. In her first-ever interview with The Guardian in 2013, she said, “I really don't enjoy the attention. The public side does not come naturally to me. I'm not saying I'm a shrinking violet. I'm not. I've been bossy all my life. It's just I very much enjoy actually running the business."

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Coates graduated from the University of Sheffield with a first-class degree in econometrics. While she was in school, she worked in the cashiers’ department of Provincial Racing, a bookmaking firm owned by her family, before training as an accountant. She became Managing Director in 1995, took out a loan from Barclays, and acquired a neighboring chain, doubling the size of the business.

Coates saw the potential in online sports betting and in 2000 bought the domain bet365.com for £20,000. She launched the website the following year. When the dot.com bubble burst, she put Provincial Racing up for collateral to secure a loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which granted her around £14 million. In 2005, she sold the shops to bookmaker Coral for £40 million, which allowed Coates to pay off the loan to RBS. Since then, Bet365 has been one of the world's largest online gambling companies, with $2 billion in revenues and facilitating $65 billion in yearly bets.

Coates, however, hasn’t just counted her winnings. She established the Bet365 Foundation in August 2012, and in February 2016 it was renamed the Denise Coates Foundation. Since 2014, the foundation has donated £100 million in the U.K. and worldwide. Notable contributions include relief programs for victims caught in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, £10 million to University Hospitals of North Midlands to support staff fighting coronavirus, and £1 million donated to support families fleeing the war in Ukraine.