This year’s edition of the Sunday Times rich list features several gambling entrepreneurs alongside the UK’s wealthiest businessmen and women. The Sunday Times Rich List is a ranking of the wealthiest 1,000 people or families in the United Kingdom based on their net worth. Since 1989, the list has been revised annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by The Sunday Times, a British Sunday newspaper. The list is usually a good representation of the biggest and most successful industries in the country and has previously featured entertainment moguls, celebrities and sports stars alongside successful business people. This year’s list has featured a number of gaming business owners, with the online sports betting and casino gaming industry booming in the UK.
Which Gambling Entrepreneurs Were Featured on This Year’s Rich List?
The Coates family has been a regular fixture on the Sunday Times Rich list for several years now. The family, who run Bet365, includes co-chief executives Denise and John, as well as their father and firm chair Peter. This year, the Coates are once again placed best among them, coming in 17th overall and first among gaming industry figures. The Coates family’s fortune was assessed to be worth £8.45 billion, up £1.28 billion from the 2020 edition.
The family has been the CEO of Bet365 since its inception in 2000, and they have recently also been crowned the UK’s largest taxpayers, having paid £573 million in the most recent full financial year. It will take a lot for another entrepreneur to beat them, especially after such a large increase this year.
Meanwhile, the next highest-ranking names from the gaming business on the Sunday Times Rich List were Ian and Richard Livingstone. The two brothers built their fortune in property, amassing a multi-billion-pound property portfolio, including some of the finest hotels in the world. However, they are also key shareholders in Evolution Gaming, the Swedish live casino provider who just recently acquired NetEnt. The success of Evolution Gaming over the past year has seen the Livingstone brothers’ fortune rise from £2.2 billion to more than £6 billion, putting them in 27th place.
Not everyone in the gambling industry climbed the rankings, though, with some founders falling down the list this year. Among them is Teddy Sagi, founder of Playtech, who fell six places to 44th, despite his fortune increasing to £3.84 billion. Meanwhile, Mark Scheinberg, the son of PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg, was rated 49th, down from 44th in 2020, as his net worth dropped to £3.52 billion.
2020 was clearly an excellent year for the industry, and many of the businesses involved in gaming have seen their shares increase over the past year. This has led to those involved in the industry significantly adding to their wealth. Even if some of the names on the list have fallen down the rankings, all of them have still increased their fortune.
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