The chief executive officer of Bet365, Denise Coates, received a pay increase in 2021 to cement further her status as the highest-paid boss in the United Kingdom and ranked 17th in the Sunday Times Rich List.

Denise Coates, 53, awarded herself a salary of £421 million from the Stoke-on-Trent-based online betting giant the biggest salary in British corporate history.

The company’s results, which covered the year to 29 March 2020, were affected by the “dramatic” impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of the period which resulted in the global sporting calendar grinding to a halt.

That helped push revenues down 8% to £2.81bn and together with “an increase in remuneration and other costs” contributed to an 83% slump in pre-tax profits to £137m.