Bet365 owners Denise, John and Peter Coates have been knocked off The Times Tax List top spot for the first time since 2019.

Despite contributing some £460.2m to the UK’s public purse in 2022, the gambling dynasty was pushed to second place in the 2023 Tax List, behind Moscow-born owner of XTX Markets Alex Gerko.

Gerko headed the list for the very first time after contributing £487.4m in taxes during the latest financial year.

The Coates’ tax contribution was down 4.5% on the previous year’s Tax List, when they contributed £481.7m, and 19.7% down on the £573m they contributed in 2021’s rankings.

Bet365 reported a 2.3% increase in full-year revenue to £2.85bn for the 52-week period ending 27 March 2022, although profit from gambling operations decreased by 88%. 

The 2023 figure still leaves a serious gulf between the Coates and the UK’s next largest taxpayers, with Speedo owner Stephen Rubin and family contributing £392.2m in third place, and hedge fund manager Sir Chris Hohn contributing £263m in fourth.

The fifth position on the list was taken by another UK-based gambling industry success story as Betfred owners Fred and Peter Done contributed £136.8m in taxes.

Other notable contributions from the world of iGaming include major Evolution shareholders Ian and Richard Livingstone, the property mogul brothers who also own a string of luxury hotels.

They contributed £104m to the public purse and were a new entry on The Times’ Tax List this year at position number 10. 

The pair were reported to hold a 16.4% share in the Swedish live casino giant in 2020 before selling off a significant portion of their stake.

Today, Richard Livingstone holds around 4.2 million shares in the business, or 1.95% of its total shares. At its current valuation of SEK1,167, that leaves the property tycoon’s remaining stake in Evolution worth some SEK4.89bn (€433.6m).

Elsewhere, the Tax List includes career bookie Will Roseff, who helped get bet365 up and running and retains a 6.7% stake in the business.

Roseff contributed £32.9m in taxes this year, putting him in 41st position of the UK’s biggest taxpayers.

According to industry association the Betting and Gaming Council, the UK’s gambling industry supports 110,000 jobs in the country while contributing £7.1bn to the economy and generating £4.2bn in taxes for the Treasury annually.