Peter Coates

English businessman

Peter Coates (born 13 January 1938) is an English businessman, the co founder of bet365, and the chairman of Stoke City Football Club. He has been listed as the 25th richest person in British football. 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. This lasted until he was old enough to join the Parachute Regiment for his National Service. 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. The deal was completed on 15 November 1999.

The Coates family through a bet365 subsidiary company completed the purchase of Stoke City F. C. for £1.7 million. Coates later stated the Icelandic consortium had left the club in a "mess" with debts of around £9 million. Coates re appointed Tony Pulis as manager ahead of the 2006–07 season and the team almost made it to the play offs. They did achieve promotion to the Premier League in 2007–08 finishing in 2nd place. Stoke secured survival in 2008–09 despite being favorites for relegation. Stoke broke their transfer record in August 2010, paying Sunderland £8 million for Kenwyne Jones. Stoke reached their first FA Cup Final in 2010–11, losing 1–0 to Manchester City. Stoke again broke their transfer record in 2011–12 spending £10 million on Peter Crouch. Supporters began to get frustrated with the style of football played under Pulis in 2012–13 and so Coates replaced him with Mark Hughes. The style of football improved under Hughes and Stoke enjoyed a good period finishing ninth three seasons running in 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16. Problems began to emerge however as Hughes began to move on the longer serving players and replace them with his own with £18 million spent on Giannelli Imbula in February 2015 and Kevin Wimmer in August 2017 with both making little impact of the team. Coates came in for criticism from supporters in December 2017 with the team in deep relegation trouble and pressure mounting on Hughes, He dismissed the fans concerns with— "I don’t know what all the fuss is about". He sacked Hughes soon after and replaced him with Paul Lambert who was unable to keep Stoke in the Premier League. Gary Rowett was appointed manager going into the 2018–19 season and despite spending over £30 million on new players he was unable to mount a promotion bid and was sacked in January 2019 and replaced with Nathan Jones. Stoke made a poor start to the 2019–20 season and were cut adrift at the bottom of the table by November before Jones was dismissed. Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill was brought in and he was able to guide Stoke to Championship survival. In September 2020 his son John Coates was appointed as joint chairman.

Coates has been a significant Labour Party donor, although he did not donate to the party while Jeremy Corbyn was leader. During the 2020 Labour leadership election, he donated £25,000 to Keir Starmer's successful campaign.

Coates' father, Leonard was a miner and fought in World War I with the York and Lancaster Regiment where he was awarded a Military Medal. In December 2014 it was announced that Leonard would have a street named after him in Stoke on Trent. Coates was awarded honorary degrees from Staffordshire University in 2008, and Keele University in 2011. Speaking at the Football Governance Inquiry in March 2011, he said: "I am a Stoke boy, I have supported the club since I was a boy and I have had two comings at Stoke – an early one in 1985, after which I sold the club to an Icelandic consortium and then bought it back again about five years ago this summer. I bought it back again against my better judgment, in some ways, and my family's, who all thought I was daft to do it. The club was in a mess at the time and I thought I could help it and do things for it, and I was a bit disappointed with my previous time, and there was a little bit of unfinished business about it and all that sort of thing. But I thought it would be important for the area if the football club were doing well. Stoke was having a difficult time. It has lost the pot banks and the mining industry. I thought that if Stoke could get in the Premier League it would give the place a lift and would be good for it. I think that that has happened, I am pleased to say."