24= (-) Peter Coates and family £200m (-)
Peter Coates loves Stoke City Football Club so much he has bought it not once, but twice. The 69-year-old from Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent became the majority shareholder of Stoke City FC in 1989 and was chairman until 1997. Two years later he sold his shares for £3.5 million to a consortium of Icelandic businessmen.
Then in May 2006 his company, Kidsgrove Road, bought it back again, paying the Icelanders £1.7 million, with a further £3.3 million to cancel out debt.
The miner’s son and long-time Labour Party donor founded Stadia Catering in 1968 specifically to supply catering at football clubs.
Within a few years he was supplying nearly every club in the UK. Stadia was renamed Lindley Catering and was subsequently sold for £17 million.
In 1974, he bought three betting shops - the start of a chain which was to become Provincial Racing, owning 49 shops across the country. Then, in 2000, his daughter Denise came up with the idea of online betting. He took up her idea and Bet365 was born.
In July 2005 he sold his betting shops for £40 million to concentrate on the online business. The Bet365 business is worth at least £175 million and puts Peter Coates in the top 25 richest people in British football.
