ByRebecca Marston
Business reporter, BBC News

Denise Coates, the billionaire manager of Bet365, included another ₤ 323m to her wealth today after the business her household founded acquired another year of huge revenues.

She's been called the UK's most successful female, with a fortune that Forbes magazine puts in the area of ₤ 9.3 bn.

Most noticeably, she has made that mostly herself.

Bet365 is Stoke-on-Trent's biggest personal sector employer, with more than 4,600 personnel. It provides its millions of around the world customers sports wagering, poker, gambling establishment, games and bingo. The firm had a ₤ 3bn turnover in the year to the end of March and a profit before tax of ₤ 791m.

Ms Coates' brother John is joint chief executive and her daddy Peter is the firm's chairman, but Denise Coates owns half the yohaig code business and there's no doubt the success is largely hers.

LISTEN: Profile: Denise Coates

Bet365 boss sees pay rise to ₤ 265m

Serious gamblers tend to have a "system", a supposedly foolproof method that will keep on bringing benefits. So what's her "system"?

Return to the 1990s and there aren't lots of who would have bet on the small family-run chain of local wagering stores growing to such a size.

A lot is down to her mathematical skill, which was exceptional from an early age. David Owen taught her at secondary school in the 1980s.

"She got everything right, only asked important concerns and was angelically acted. She was plainly off the scale. If we were talking Mensa, she 'd be in the top 1%," he told the BBC.

'More ladies'

She achieved a top-notch degree in econometrics and trained as an accounting professional within the household company, developing even more on the understanding of the small chain that she picked up while working part-time during high school.

Along with a very keen eye for figures - the heart of any effective bookmaker - she is also a moderniser.

Among her colleagues, Debbie Tatton, told the BBC: "When Denise came, she desired a closer relationship between the personnel and the consumers. We became a lot more expert, a lot more customer-focused. A great deal of more youthful people started being available in, as well as a lot more ladies."

In 2000, Ms Coates upped the stakes and persuaded the household to mortgage the business to allow them to establish new software.

Her sibling states she ended up being fixated on the potential for online betting and became a pioneer in that service.

Establishing head office in a momentary structure in a parking area, Ms Coates called it the ultimate gamble, buying the domain name Bet365.com so that she might drive the organization because instructions.

'Innate understanding'

"She's extremely intelligent and really identified," says Warwick Bartlett, from worldwide wagering and video gaming specialists GBGC.

"She is also capable of taking a look at the big image. Betfair was the innovator in in-play betting, however she was basically the very first to harness mobile innovation, acknowledging that gamblers anywhere would be able to bet on sporting occasions."

A huge 70% of earnings now comes through betting on tablets and phones.

She is helped, Mr Bartlett says, by the fact that she, distinctively, actually knows the industry. "The Coates household are third-generation bookmakers. They have actually found out business from moms and dads and grandparents.

"She has an innate knowledge of what the bettor is trying to find. A great deal of the companies nowadays have supervisors that may have come from [other sectors] They are expert supervisors who try to apply their understanding acquired from selling beans or margarines."

Ad controversy

Mr Bartlett says close understanding of another service has assisted with the in-play football earnings: Bet365 owns regional club Stoke City.

"Owning a football club provided an insight into the yohaig code way the Premier League worked. Stoke City, not so effective itself, has actually played groups that truly are," he states.

"On top of the contact with the specialists they benefit from protection through the sponsorship of the yohaig code team. Bet365 has excellent exposure every time Stoke are featured."

Ms Coates' father is chairman of Stoke and has a higher public profile than she does.

But the name best related to Bet365 is, of course, Ray Winstone, whose gravelly tones used to urge punters to "wager in play - NOW!" before the advertisements were pulled.

Again, Warwick Bartlett says, Ms Coates got it right. "Using Ray validates my point about 365, they know their consumers. He's a middle-aged guy and a little a geezer.

"Cleverly, Bet365 usage comparable types to appeal to their consumers in other markets. In Australia, it's Samuel L Jackson - he encounters in the advert as an extremely cool guy."

Bet365 continues to keep one step ahead. It's moving into the US as the marketplace there opens.

But while Denise Coates' company brain believes global, she herself is most likely to remain rooted in Stoke.

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