Denise Coats founder of Bet365 paid herself a record £323m last year £58m more than she earned the year before.

She also collected dividend payments of £45m from her ownership of more than half the Stoke-based company.

The total breaks the record for the highest-ever amount paid to an executive in a UK-based company. The £265m that Coates earned in the year to the end of March 2017 was the previous record.

The latest accounts, which were due to be filed on or around 20 November, were only published this week.

The bumper salary means that Coates, 52, effectively earned £1.3m for every working day in the firm’s financial year.

She is now the best-paid boss in the UK for the third year running, and Forbes magazine estimates her net worth to be in the region of $12bn (£9bn).