Peter Coates
| Peter Coates | |
|---|---|
| Born |
13 January 1938 Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent, England |
| Occupation | Owner of Stoke City F.C. Shareholder of Bet365 |
| Net worth |
 £750 million (2014) |
| Spouse(s) | Deirdre |
| Children | 4 |
Peter Coates (born 13 January 1938) is an English businessman and current Chairman of the Stoke City Football Club. He has been listed as the 25th richest person in British football. He founded Stadia Catering in the 1960s and Signal Radio in 1983.
Peter Coates was born in Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent, the youngest of 14 children. His father was a miner and had a keen interest in football, where they regularly attended Stoke City's Victoria Ground. Coates signed for the club on amateur terms in the 1950s, but admitted he was "not quite good enough" to make it as a professional, instead he went on to play for local non-league sides Goldenhill Wanderers and Kidsgrove Athletic, he stopped playing football at the age of 23.
Coates left school at age fourteen to work in an office. He served in the Parachute Regiment for his National Service. Out of the service he rose to become a regional manager at Wimpy restaurants, before founding Stadia Catering – a catering firm specialising in servicing football grounds. His company merged with Lindley Catering, and he was the company's chair from 1968 to 2001. He also founded Signal 1 in 1983.
Bet365 was founded in 2000 in a portakabin in Stoke-on-Trent by the Coates family, led by his daughter Denise.
Denise Coates developed a sports betting platform and trading team to launch the business online in March 2001. The business borrowed £15 million from RBS against the family's betting shop estate which had been started by Peter Coates in 1974. Bet365 sold its betting shop chain in 2005 for £40 million and paid off its loan to RBS.
Bet365 has grown into one of the world's largest online gambling companies with its reported figures to March 2010 showing amounts wagered on sports at £5.4 billion, revenues of £358 million, and an operating profit of £104 million.
...
Wikipedia