Bet365 boss Denise Coates was paid more than £260m in year to March

The fall in the pay package of Denise Coates came as the gambling company spent heavily on expansion. Photograph: Felix Clay

The multibillionaire boss of gambling company Bet365 has collected annual pay and dividends of more than £260m – one of the world’s biggest-ever pay awards but less than the record-breaking £471m she collected in 2020.

Denise Coates, who set up Bet365 in a portable building in Stoke-on-Trent in 2000, was paid a salary of £213m in the year to March 2022, according to the company’s latest accounts published on Friday. As the company’s controlling shareholder she is also entitled to at least 50% of the £100m in dividend paid for the year.