Paddy Power is probably Irelands most successful export within the gambling industry. The company have made a business on the back of some clever marketing campaigns, but also being able to back up their ‘craic’ with a well-oiled betting machine.
The bookmaker are still keen to pursue their offline interests, mainly in the form of betting of shops of which they now operate a reported 600+ in Ireland and across Great Britain, making them one of the biggest names on the high street.
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High Street Betting Shops
The bookmaker started life in 1988 and since then has built up quite the repertoire of betting shops. As stated, they currently sit at over 600 stores allowing them to push their products in all corners of the UK and Ireland.
What’s been impressive to see is that the number of betting shops are still continuing to grow, where the majority of bookies are moving away from their high street roots in favour for the more lucrative online sector.
They started their life a little differently than most though, diving straight in with a merger of several bookmakers to offer up 40 stores across Ireland. The popularity of the brand, coupled with the lack of a real front-runner in Irelands betting industry, undoubtedly helped them in the early days, but it’s been a trend that has continued throughout the 90’s and into the modern day betting world.
On the Internet
Whilst the high street sector was definitely a huge building block for the company, little could argue that it’s been their influence within the online sector that has really put them on the map. The site has always been a little different compared to most that have been developed, with design being one of the main reasons to their continued success.
These days the design is still paramount and you can tell that as soon as you land on the site, it’s one that’s going to continue to keep you entertained for a good while. The homepage includes a number of betting markets and also includes the ability to quickly jump between a huge range of sports, which we liked.
One of the ways that we feel that Paddy Power standout and is something that many people overlook is their pricing structure. They are continued to be right up there as one oft the best in our opinion and when you spend as much time as we do comparing these types of sites, we have continued to see Paddy Power’s name crop up when comparing odds.
Online you are going to get access to a number of features that you cant from their high street stores, such as cash out betting, live streaming, commentary, form, betting offers and betting promotions as well.
Cash Card PPlus
The cash card from Paddy Power is basically a pre paid MasterCard that is linked up to your online betting account. You are able to place bets with it in store as well, but more importantly, you can withdraw money from your account as soon as that bet has been settled, which is great!
About Paddy Power
Paddy Power didn’t come about until 1988, but the brains behind the brand were actually bookmaking for decades before that. At the time, many smaller bookies were extremely vulnerable to being swallowed up by massively expanding brands, such as William Hill and Ladbrokes. They were essentially looking to get into as many shops as possible and with it, were able to buy out these smaller brands as a base.
David Power, Stewart Kenny & John Corcoran
In fear of losing their business altogether, three relatively successful Irish based bookmakers decided that the best thing to do was to bring their brand together as one and in turn, Paddy Power was created. David Power, Stewart Kenny and John Corcoran were the three bookies in question, cumulating their 40 stores between them.
The name came about simply that ‘Power’ had the strongest meaning from all three and it was also thought that David Power was the strongest party, owning more shops initially that the other 3 put together, giving them some form of brand recognition from the off.
Customer Service & Market Share
The group decided that to succeed they needed to change things up a little. Many of the bigger players were pretty ruthless in regards to how they worked with their punters, knowing they had the vast monopoly over where they could bet. So, Paddy Power was designed on the back of a strong customer service, something that they still pride themselves with today.
They also needed a way in which it possible to get their brand out to a wider range of punters within Ireland, and to do this decided that they needed to move away from the side streets and into the hear to towns and cities. By doing this, they were able to increase their market share within Ireland from just 8% to a massive 33% of off-course betting from 1988 to 2001.
Introduction of Novelty Bets
In order to keep their Irish charm, they brand decided that not only were they able to offer supreme customer service, they also wanted to be known as entertainers within a pretty straight collared industry.
They decided on presenting a number of novelty bets in order to create a bit of buzz, such as strange appointments for football managers job (Noel Edmonds for the vacant Liverpool job in 2004 was a particular favourite at 1000/1) and even, albeit inadvertently, a market on whether President Obama would be assassinated in his first term.
The Move Online
The turn of the millennium was a monumental time for Paddy Power. Not only did their holding company, Paddy Power PLC, first list on the London Stock Exchange, but it was also the first foray into the digital age, with the launch of PaddyPower.com. As the company adapted to online, it soon became apparent that Paddy Power had a canny knack of being able to be in the right place at the right time, not taking long for their online revue to surpass even that of their online presence.
But, whilst online was growing at an alarming rate, they were still keen to pursue their high street brand. Their first major acquisition came in the form of Northern Irish independent bookmaker, McGranaghan Racing adding over 45 shops within Ireland, but by the time 2010 came about their global number had reached an impressive 356.
Acquisition of Sportsbet.com.au
By 2011 the company were the largest bookmaker in Europe by total share value, with a group income of £444 million. They were able to do this by taking over companies based outside the UK and Ireland and finally making themselves more of a global brand. The acquisition of Australian bookmaker, Sportsbet.com.au was a huge contributor to this.
Betfair Merger
All of this was overshadowed, however, as in 2015, they first announced that they would be merging with the biggest betting exchange in the world, Betfair, in a deal reportedly worth a cool £10 billion. Whilst the merger didn’t have any affect of their high street game as Betfair was an online site (aside from corporate offices), the online implications were huge. Paddy Power officials remained the dominant shareholder in the group at 52% – 48%, but hierarchy from both were brought together for roles within the boardroom.
The brand are still one of the biggest in the world and it’s been good to see that the merger with Betfair, aside from the new name Paddy Power Betfair, has kept the two brands doing what they do best. Their light-hearted attitude to betting and way in which they have shaped the modern day bookmaker is to be commended. They’ve been criticised in the past, numerous times, for overstepping the mark with regards to some ads and even bets, but like they say, all publicity is good publicity, and this has definitely been the case for Paddy Power.
Paddy Power in the News
Paddy Power Betfair shares hit as boss stands down (7th August 2017) – As news the news of Breon Corocoran, one of the found members of Paddy Power, broke about his immediate resignation, stocks in the company fell almost 5%. But, the company did stress that whilst the hit had taken place, its half-year result would actually show an increase of 9% over the previous period.
Paddy Power Betfair takes £5million hit from Trump Election win (23rd January 2017) – A bad night for politics proved to be an even worse night for Paddy Power Betfair as they paid out over £5million to punters who had backed the outsider to win the election race over Hilary Clinton. The cause wasn’t helped by the fact that Paddy Power had decided to pay out over £800,000 to backers of Clinton before the polls had even closed.
Paddy Power and Betfair agree merger (26th august 2016) – Two of the largest bookmakers in the world, Paddy Power and Betfair, have agreed upon a merger with the deal reported to be worth in excess of £5billion. The merger is yet another within the gambling industry as companies try and overcome huge tax bills from within the government sector.