Peter Coates

He has been listed as the 25th-richest person in British football.

Peter Coates (born 13 January 1938) is an English businessman, the co-founder of bet365, and the chairman of Stoke City Football Club.

Coates signed for the club on amateur terms in the 1950s, but admitted he was "not quite good enough" to make it as a professional; instead he went on to play for local non-league sides Goldenhill Wanderers and Kidsgrove Athletic.

He stopped playing football at the age of 23.

Coates left school at age fourteen to work in an office to help his family make ends meet.

This lasted until he was old enough to join the Parachute Regiment for his National Service.

After leaving the army he took a job with the Wimpy restaurant chain, eventually rising to the position of regional manager.

Using his restaurant background as a springboard, Coates founded Stadia Catering.

Their speciality was catering events at football grounds, and they would eventually merge with competitor Lindley Catering.

He used the increase in revenue to purchase a chain of betting shops that he dubbed Provincial Racing.

He founded Stadia Catering in the 1960s and Signal Radio in 1983.

Peter Coates was born in Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent, the youngest of 14 children.

He was brought up by his sister, Irene, after his mother died when he was two.

His father, Leonard was a miner and World War I veteran who had a keen interest in football, where they regularly attended Stoke City's Victoria Ground.

The business borrowed £15 million from RBS against the family's betting shop estate which had been started by Peter Coates in 1974.

He also founded the local radio station Signal 1 in 1983.

The club had been through a tough period with poor finances and a humiliating relegation in 1984–85.

In 1986, Peter Coates became majority shareholder at Stoke City and was appointed chairman in September 1986 taking over from Sandy Clubb.

Coates backed Mick Mills in 1986–87 for a promotion push but they fell short and Mills had to sell players before making additions.

In preparation for the 1989–90 season Stoke spent a combined £1million on new players with a then club record of £480,000 for Ian Cranson.

However results were appalling and the team finished bottom of the table and fell into the third tier.

In 1990 the Stoke City board consisted of six directors and it was agreed that a new share issue was needed, with the majority wanting the supporters to be free to purchase.

Following disagreements regarding this share issue, several board members left and the board then consisted of Peter Coates, Keith Humphreys and David Edwards.

Coates appointed Lou Macari for the 1991–92 season and he guided the club to the Second Division title and victory in the 1992 Associate Members' Cup Final.

Supporters were dismayed with the board after Mark Stein was sold to Chelsea in October 1993 for £1.4 million and shortly after Macari left to join Celtic.

Macari returned to Stoke the following season and the side nearly gained promotion in 1995–96 losing to Leicester City in the play-offs.

The board decided to move to a new all-seater-stadium following the 1996–97 season after deciding it would be too costly to upgrade the Victoria Ground to meet the Taylor Report.

The first season at the new Britannia Stadium was a disaster for the club as unexpectedly Macari left and was replaced by his assistant Chic Bates.

Coates was coming in for a lot of criticism from supporters for his lack of spending and after a embarrassing 7–0 defeat at home to Birmingham City on 10 January 1998 around 2,000 angry supporters invaded the pitch at full-time and some attempted to enter the directors box.

After more fan protests Coates resigned as chairman although he remained a majority shareholder, whilst Keith Humphreys was appointed chairman as Stoke were relegated to the Second Division.

In 1999, a group of Icelandic businessmen formed a consortium to buy the club led by Gunnar Gíslason.

The consortium Stoke Holding paid around £3.5 million.

The deal was completed on 15 November 1999.

bet365 was founded in 2000 in a portakabin in Stoke-on-Trent by the Coates family, led by his daughter Denise.

Denise Coates developed a sports betting platform and trading team to launch the business online in March 2001.

The Icelandic consortium eventually took Stoke back the First Division via the play-offs in 2002 and consolidated the club in mid-table but were unable to mount a promotion attempt.

bet365 sold its betting shop chain in 2005 for £40 million and paid off its loan to RBS.

bet365 has grown into one of the world's largest online gambling companies, with its reported figures to March 2010 showing amounts wagered on sports at £5.4 billion, revenues of £358 million, and an operating profit of £104 million.

Peter Coates holds the position of chairman of bet365.

Denise Coates, joint chief executive, continues to run bet365 with her brother, John.